


About Face

by Carolyn R Fulton (ds9kirys)



Series: Taking Dominion [1]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1996-04-20
Updated: 1996-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 12:05:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 48,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14378295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ds9kirys/pseuds/Carolyn%20R%20Fulton
Summary: I feel I should preface this by saying it is not my favorite work. That said, it has been requested, and so here it is.On a happier note, I seem to be experiencing a desire to finally finish it, in the hopes that I will like it better. :-)  The conclusion will be titled "No Matter What the Cost."The series title was chosen because I needed to have one. Don't read too much into it.  :-)





	About Face

**Author's Note:**

> I feel I should preface this by saying it is not my favorite work. That said, it has been requested, and so here it is. 
> 
> On a happier note, I seem to be experiencing a desire to finally finish it, in the hopes that I will like it better. :-) The conclusion will be titled "No Matter What the Cost."
> 
> The series title was chosen because I needed to have one. Don't read too much into it. :-)

 

* * *

"But, Doctor ... there's something wrong with it!" 

"Not from what you're describing ... how often is it happening?" 

_"Constantly!"_

"I'm sorry, but ... do you really mean constantly? Or is that just a figure of speech?" 

"It's happening as much as once or twice an hour! That seems constant enough for me." 

"That's actually not that unusual. Especially considering how — recently your situation has changed, and the fact that you're — well, that you're inactive. With that, I mean." The doctor made haste to mollify his patient's glare.

"Fine. Can't I just have it removed?" 

Dr. Julian Bashir stared at his patient with widening eyes, and wondered at the bizarre turn this consultation was taking as they discussed the state of Security Chief Odo's penis. The former changeling-now human seemed to consider his request entirely reasonable. With difficulty Bashir managed not to wince as he said quietly, "I don't think that's indicated. I don't think that's _ever_ indicated. You might even eventually decide that you like it. Most men are rather attached to that portion of their anatomy." Bashir smiled weakly at his own pun.

"But why can't I controlit?" Odo was honestly bewildered, and a little upset. "Isn't it a muscle?" 

"No-o-o." Another one, Bashir thought, that they didn't really prepare you for in medical school. With a ten-year-old child — sure. That he could have handled with aplomb. But with a adult man who'd just magically acquired this new 'equipment' without asking for it and without warning, that was another matter entirely. Bashir could only guess what extent of desperation had driven Odo to engage him for such an intimate consultation in the first place. "It's just — erectile tissue. When you encounter something that your body perceives as erotic stimuli, it's an involuntary response." 

"What about first thing when I wake up? I haven't encountered anything then!" 

Bashir forced back his umpteenth chuckle and kept his face and voice calm and concerned. "That's a bit different. It's generally just because you need to urinate." 

"It doesn't feel all that different," Odo grumbled. 

"Odo," Bashir began hesitantly, "I'm afraid a lot of the problem is simply one that the passage of time will have to take care of — while your face and to some extent your body _looks_ older, you actually have the physical makeup of a much younger man. At least as far as hormonal and cell degeneration levels go, you're barely more than a — well, an adolescent." The doctor dug in his heels to bravely withstand the constable's sudden, outraged stare. "Look, would you like me to point out some reading on the subject? There are several excellent data files in our own record banks that -"

"I've done the reading, Doctor — at least I've tried to." Odo's expression was taut with distaste. "It's just that, these solid bodies — they're so -"

"So ...?" Bashir prompted helpfully.

"So messy. So ... expulsive." 

"Ah," Bashir murmured. "I think I understand." 

"How are you able to stand it?" 

"We grow up like this — it makes a difference, I suppose. And some of the experiences our bodies give us are ... very pleasant." 

Odo snorted his disbelief. "Isn't there _something_ I can do to make it more — manageable? Some sort of drug, perhaps?" Odo glanced around the Infirmary office hopefully. 

"Nothing I would prescribe. Constable ..." Bashir leaned across his desk, carefully framing his next words. "Have you considered just ... 'taking matters in your own hands', so to speak?" 

Odo stared at him, unblinking. Just as Bashir was beginning to wonder, with a sinking heart, if he was going to have to explain exactly what he meant, Odo asked scathingly, "Is masturbation honestly the best thing you can suggest?" 

Bashir breathed a sigh of relief. To Odo's look of sudden outrage he explained, "I'm sorry. I was just afraid you didn't know what I was talking about." 

"Doctor, I'm the head of station security. That means I'm in charge of the security cells as well. I've had more than one occasion to walk in on a prisoner doing just what you've mentioned." Odo shuddered. "It looks vile. It's degrading." 

"So you haven't ..." 

"Of course not! Not yet, anyway." 

Bashir considered the facts. Odo had been a 'solid' for a little over three months. If his tension — and temper — continued escalating at their apparent rate, what would the constable be like after six months \- nine — a year? Bashir shook his head at the thought. "Odo, there are other possibilities." 

"A prostitute? Doctor, this is a Bajoran station. I can hardly solicit an illegal activity." 

"No, of course not ... what about a holosuite?" 

Odo gave him an incredulous stare, summing up his objections in two words. "At _Quark's?_ "

Bashir immediately backed down. "Actually, what I was originally thinking of was something more like a — a relationship." 

Odo became absolutely still, like a freiza _-_ bird hiding itself in tall grass. "A relationship? What sort of relationship?" 

"Well, you could start — dating. There's that lovely woman Garak introduced you to — what is her name? Chalan Aroya?" 

"How do you know about that?" Odo asked sharply.

"I still have lunch with Garak at least once a week, there in security," Bashir explained. "He told me about her." 

"Then I hope he told you I'm not interested!" Odo stood abruptly, staring down at the apologetic Bashir. "In other words, we've wasted a good deal of time here when there's actually nothing you can do to help me. Thank you for listening, Doctor, but I really have work to do." 

Odo ate up the floor with long, angry strides as he navigated the Promenade, on his usual rounds, but with something more than his usual speed. He wasn't quite sure how he ended up at the Celestial Cafe right at lunch time, but there he was — he was about to reconsider and flee in the direction of the Replimat when a soft, pleased voice caught his attention. He would have fled anyway, except that it was not the voice he expected.

Major Kira beckoned to him from one of the tables near the entrance.

"Odo! Come join me!" 

Odo hesitated only briefly before going to the major's table and taking the seat she indicated, justifying his actions as being necessary to prevent anyone viewing the likely response of the divining rod in his trousers. _Prophets, she's so beautiful._ The words seemed to come unbidden to his mind every time he saw Kira Nerys nowadays. Glowing, radiant, hair like a dark flame against her creamy skin \-- Odo sat down hastily, with a surge of gratitude that the tabletop wasn't made of glass.

"Odo, how are you?" Kira's eyes were warm, interested ... the eyes of a friend, someone who cared. _If only she could care for me the way I care for her ..._ His transformation to human had done nothing to diminish Odo's feelings for the lovely Bajoran — if anything, they had been enhanced by his new hormones, as well as a sweet glimmer of _possibility._ At least now he occupied a solid form, the same as she did ...

_With the same face as before,_ Odo reminded himself sternly. _And with Shakaar still there on Bajor._ He knew from last week's staff meeting, when she had been getting ready to depart, that Kira was newly returned from a visit with Bajor's First Minister, her first since giving birth to the O'Briens' baby.

"Quite well, Major, thank you." Odo made a slight grimace. "Although still adjusting." 

Kira nodded understandingly. "It's going to take you a while. I'm just glad you came in — I can use the company. I decided I needed a special treat today, so I came here. There's nothing like your home planet's food when ... well, when you're feeling a little down." 

_Down?_ Odo wondered. "I'm sorry if you're not feeling well." After a pause he added, "You were just on Bajor, weren't you?" 

"Yep," Kira said briefly. "Visiting Shakaar." 

Odo noted, with a certain investigatory detachment, the fact that she referred to her lover by his patronym rather than his given name as she had been wont to do. "How is the First Minister?" he asked politely.

"He's fine." Kira picked up her water glass and absently swished around the contents as she stared straight ahead. "We — we aren't going to be seeing each other any more." 

"What happened?" Odo blurted out, before remembering that it was none of his business. Kira, however, seemed touched by his concern.

"It's just too hard. He's there, I'm here — and he's used to having someone around for him. Things got pretty bad while I was pregnant — and now I'm not willing to throw away what I've got here just to be at his beck and call in some — plush little post on Bajor. So we decided we'd better end it, while we're still friends." Kira sighed, finally putting down her glass. "I guess friends don't make very good lovers after all." 

Odo heard a quick death knell to any hopes her initial words might have caused. He did manage, "I would think it would depend on the friend," before picking up his menu and studying it as closely as he might the week's Criminal Activities Report. Then a soft, girlish voice intruded on both of them.

"Odo!" Chalan Aroya glided across the restaurant toward them, wearing one of her usual slightly flamboyant outfits that emphasized her voluptuous bosom. "Major Kira," she added, nodding, with decidedly less warmth. "Odo, I've been wondering when you plan to take me up on my invitation to dinner. You do eat now, you know." Her smile was frankly seductive. 

"I haven't really thought of a time yet," Odo waffled. "I've been so busy -"

"What about tonight? At twenty-hundred hours?" 

Assent seemed to be the easiest route of escape. "I — all right. Tonight, then. Twenty-hundred hours." 

"I'll see you then." Aroya's lips curved bewitchingly. "I'll make sure that a waiter comes over to take your order now." Giving Kira an arch look and Odo one last radiant smile, the restaurateur retreated the way she had come with undulating steps. Kira stared after her, wide-eyed, before starting to chuckle.

"I wonder how long it took her to come up with _that_ act?" 

"What act, Major?" Although he hadn't been necessarily impressed with Aroya's presentation himself, Odo found Kira's question to be oddly irritating. Kira's laughter died abruptly as she heard the seriousness of Odo's question. 

"She's just so — overstated, I guess. I don't know, she just doesn't seem like your type." Kira's smile returned in spite of herself.

"Who _does_ seem like my type to you, Major?" There was a tiny note of something dangerous in Odo's level voice that Kira managed to overlook.

"I don't know ... I never thought of you _having_ a type. Why, do you like her?" 

"I don't know yet," Odo replied shortly. He turned to acknowledge the approaching waiter and placed his order — _hasperat_ , which had the merit of being something he'd heard of. 

"Make that two," Kira said absently, handing over her menu. Her brown eyes fixed on Odo's surly expression, concerned. "I'm sorry, Odo — she just looks like such a — _p'eska._ " The word was a unique Bajoran expression for a nicely-turned out cross between a bimbo and a tart, someone who seemed well-bred but was too accommodating with her favors.

Odo considered the assessment. "Sounds good to me." His words came as a surprise even to himself. Kira was practically speechless with startled laughter.

Finally she gasped, "Odo! What are you talking about?" 

Odo stared at her, obviously at a loss. "Major, if I knew the answer to that question, I might not have said what I did in the first place." 

Kira's laughter slowly died as she looked at Odo's somber face. "Oh." Kira pronounced the single syllable slowly, giving several moments to silent thought before she finally pronounced, "Odo, you need to get some — outside interests." 

"What sort of outside interests?" Odo asked, immediately suspicious. 

"Well, you're human now. Humans need a variety of activities and interests for good mental health." Kira suddenly dimpled as a thought struck her. "Tomorrow night, I want you to join me and Dax in Holosuite C." 

"Why?" 

"I want you to play Camelot with us." 

"Camelot? What kind of game is that?" 

"It's a fantasy ... a role-playing game." When Odo rolled his eyes she added, " _I_ play it. Dax got me to start playing to develop my imagination ... I don't think that would hurt you any, either. At least you wouldn't fall for something so _obvious_." Kira gave a derisive glance towards the restaurant's central bar, where Aroya was having quiet words with the bartender.

"What would I have to do?" Odo asked, curious in spite of himself. 

"Well, let me think ..." Kira considered the options. Lancelot didn't seem likely, nor did Galahad, with his religious fervor and deep spirituality ... Kira snapped her fingers as inspiration struck. "I know! You can be King Arthur!" 

"King Arthur?" The reference obviously meant nothing to the former changeling.

"Yes ... he brought a code of law and chivalry to Britain — that's on Earth," Kira added helpfully. "Back in ... a _long_ time ago. He's kind of a myth, actually. But there's a lot in the library record banks about him." 

"Hmm ... let me think about it." Odo applied himself to his hasperat as soon as it arrived, avoiding any real conversation until he was finished. Then he said abruptly, "All right. What time?" 

Kira wondered for a moment what he was talking about. Then she smiled. "Camelot? Twenty-one hundred hours. You'll be Arthur?" 

"I suppose ... wait a minute. Do I need to have one of those foolish outfits, like you and Dax?" This sounded like it might be too great an imposition to bear.

"No! — no, something much simpler than me and Dax. I'll get it for you — please come, Odo." Kira reached out impulsively across the table, taking his hand in hers. "It'll be fun to — well, _play_ with you for a change." 

Odo stared at her, startled, with a hint of — _laughter?_ — flashing through his eyes, as though she had said something he found amusing in spite of himself. But his voice was grave as he replied, "I'll look forward to it, Major. And I'll try to do some reading on the subject before I come." Odo got to his feet, excusing himself. "I really need to get back to work — thank you for asking me to join you." He nodded at the table. 

"Tell you what, it's my treat." Kira gave him a radiant smile. "I'm glad you decided to come tomorrow night." 

"Thank you, Major." Odo nodded briskly and walked away, while Kira thought suddenly, _You always play Guinevere_ \- _you just invited Odo to be your husband. Good thing you didn't mention that part!_

For some reason the thought made her sad, but she put it down to the whole wretched business with Shakaar. 

 

* * *

At eighteen hundred hours Odo abandoned his work, quite early for him, and instead accessed the computer's library files, asking for any information pertaining to King Arthur. The amount available surprised him, but he plowed into it doggedly, to the point that he had to drop everything without preamble when he realized it was almost twenty-hundred-hours. He hurried to the upper level of the Promenade, somehow managing to skim through the doors of the Celestial Café exactly on time. Aroya greeted him with a smile.

"I _knew_ you'd be punctual, Constable Odo." She batted her eyelashes at him so shamelessly that a more experienced man might have laughed. "I hope you like Bajoran food ... I do like to eat in my own restaurant when I dine in public, but if you'd care for something else ..."

"No, Bajoran is fine." Odo had made a stubborn point of not seeming to care what he ate, but he had a sneaking fondness for the cuisine of his adopted homeworld. Aroya smiled appreciatively.

"All right, then, do you mind if I order? I do know what's good here." She chuckled a little at her own joke. 

The food she chose turned out to be delicious, and Odo ate heartily, a little surprised at his own enthusiasm. Aroya herself ate little, devoting most of her time to maintaining a light and bantering conversation. Odo found her surprisingly intelligent, and well-versed in the ins and outs of station security, to the point that he wondered if she had studied for their date in advance.

_Date,_ he thought, startled at his mind's use of the word. _Prophets, this is what humans call a 'date', isn't it?_ Odo was briefly appalled, but found that feeling being replaced by one of resignation. If nothing else, the reign of terror being exercised by the demon dwelling in his trousers looked like it might be nearing an end. As if on cue, after they finished their desserts — Odo noticed that his companion barely touched hers, no doubt due to some feminine preoccupation with weight — Aroya asked brightly, "Would you mind walking me back to my quarters, Odo? I usually let the bartender close up on a quiet night like this ... and I'd love the chance to talk with you somewhere more — private." 

"All right," Odo conceded. _It can't be as disgusting as what Bashir was suggesting — take matters into my own hands, indeed!_ Besides, there was something about the Bajoran woman he found strangely appealing — with a start he realized that she had a slight but telling resemblance to Kira.

The thought nearly unnerved him, and made him wonder guiltily, _Aren't you supposed to care about someone before you consider something like this?_ Of course, Aroya seemed to have been considering it before she ever met him, but the nagging sense of doubt still persisted ... 

Safely behind the door of her own quarters, the Bajoran woman became, if that were possible, even warmer and more inviting. "May I fix you a drink, Odo?" she asked softly, as she settled him on the couch, leaning over so that her seductively arrayed bosom was scant inches from his nose as she arranged a pillow "to make him more comfortable." Newly acquired hormones making a mockery of his self-control, it was all Odo could do not to bury his face in her cleavage. When she finally stepped back, his sigh of relief was almost audible. 

"That would be good," he replied, finally remembering to answer her question, although he was no longer sure what the question had been. The mystery was resolved when Aroya returned to press a glass into his hand, her fingers brushing against his lightly. Odo tasted the iced beverage cautiously — both sweet and tart, colorless and seemingly mild, but with a trace of bite underneath. 

"It's a specialty from my restaurant. Do you like it?" 

"It's quite good." Thirsty from sheer nervous tension, Odo drained the glass appreciatively. "What is it, some kind of tea?" 

"It's called a gamma-star. Let me get you another." Aroya crossed to the replicator, and Odo watched her departure with a sudden, dreamy pleasure, a pleasure that doubled when she turned back toward him. Aroya handed him a fresh glass. She smiled, watching him as he began to drink. "Actually, it's a blend of fourteen different liquors and seven special herbs. It's quite potent." 

_Potent._ The word seemed an understatement as every ounce of blood in Odo's body seemed to rush to his groin, to congregate there in a surge of pulsing heat. Aroya sat down next to him — _too close_ , Odo thought, dazed. _Of course, the next room might be too close at this point._ He noticed vaguely that Aroya held no glass of her own.

"Aren't you having one?" he asked faintly.

"I'm not thirsty." Aroya's smile deepened — her voice was a soft purr. Odo jumped as her hand, which she had rested behind him on the back of the sofa, moved to lightly caress his neck. "I am feeling a little hungry, though ..." 

"Well, you didn't eat very much." Odo turned to look at her, and was startled to find her face scant inches from his own. _Wait ... she doesn't mean food, does she?_ Odo's intrinsic sense of honor forced him to add, "Aroya ... we don't know each other very well ... are you sure about this?" 

"But I _want_ to get to know you," she whispered, "much, _much_ better." Aroya closed the little distance that remained between them, her mouth soft and mobile, though surprisingly cool \- Odo let out a little moan against her eagerly exploring lips, before finally bowing to the forces of nature that assailed him.

All things considered, it was astounding that the first emotion to beset him in passion's aftermath was a sense of bitter disappointment.

Lying on Aroya's wide bed against pale blue silken sheets — _'I picked them to match your eyes,'_ she had whispered, before moving her attention to an entirely different portion of his anatomy — Odo wondered at his rush of chagrin. His physical body felt sated, at least for the time being — Aroya had seen to that more than once, with her mouth and her soft hands and the warm, secret place between her thighs. But Odo's mind was curiously let down, with an odd sense of somehow having been cheated.

_Was it that I somehow expected her to be_ \- _I don't know_ \- _more passionate? Abandoned? Less_ \- _calculating?_ Part of Odo wanted to shy away from that last assessment, but basic honesty forced him to let it stand. He realized what it was that bothered him most — _I don't think she enjoyed it at all. I think she was pretending._

The disturbing thought made him sit up in bed and stare down, troubled, at the woman lying beside him. 

"What is it, darling?" Aroya asked softly. "Do you have to go?" 

For some reason the question surprised him, but Odo's rather foggy brain seized upon the option nonetheless. "Yes — I'm afraid that I do." Climbing out of bed, Odo began doggedly locating his clothes, scattered wantonly along the path between the living room couch and the bed. Once he was neatly resettled in his uniform, the security chief returned reluctantly to Aroya's side. "Good night," he said softly, knowing as he said them how lame his words were. "Thank you for a — a memorable evening." 

"I enjoyed it," Aroya replied archly, with another one of her seductive smiles. "Will I see you again soon?" 

"Of course," Odo replied automatically.

"When? Where?" The reply was instantaneous and insistent.

"Oh ... I have a few other commitments. How about dinner again, day after tomorrow?" _That should give me a little time to think, to process all this._

"Dinner it is. Same time as tonight?" Odo nodded. Aroya gave a pleased smile. "I'll see you then." 

Blundering out into the darkened Habitat Ring, Odo considered returning to his quarters and decided against it. The last thing he wanted right now was to be alone with the thoughts that chased each other like sky-crawlers in his muddled brain. Instead he returned to the Promenade and headed impulsively for Quark's.

The little Ferengi bartender greeted him with a look of bright-eyed and lecherous interest — _of course he knows about my 'date',_ Odo thought tiredly, _it's all over the station by now._ Forestalling any questions, Odo said sharply, "I'd like a drink, please. There's something they make at the Celestial Cafe — I think it's called a gamma-star. Are you familiar with it?" 

Quark let out a low whistle. "Okay, Constable — I don't have all the herbs, but I think I have the liquors ... that bad, huh?" 

"Better than you might think," Odo growled. Taking his drink, he turned around to look for a table. At the far end of the room, Jadzia Dax beckoned. 

Odo approached her with a surprisingly low level of reluctance. An unusual but deep bond had developed between them in recent months, begun in the moments when Odo was first beamed back to the _Defiant_ after his transformation into a human. Naked and exhausted, he had lain there on the transporter pad — Chief O'Brien had simply stared at him, mouth agape, but Dax had stepped over to a replicator and quietly requested a blanket, which she wordlessly tucked around the shivering constable as she might have one of her children in a past host's life. The small but telling kindness had brought tears to Odo's eyes, and it was something he knew he would never forget as long as he lived. 

Now Dax greeted him with a cheerful smile that held no hint of that poignant but embarrassing memory. "Good evening, Odo! You're off your beaten path tonight." 

"I needed a drink," Odo said simply, dropping into the seat opposite Dax with a sigh. Dax eyed the clear liquid in his glass thoughtfully.

"I take it that's not water." 

"Not even remotely." Odo shoved the glass in Dax's direction, and she took a cautious sip.

"Too many of those and you won't feel well tomorrow at _all_ ," Dax assured him. "There's a lot of real alcohol in this, not just synthehol." 

"Hmm ... I don't expect to feel well, anyway, so I might as well be able to show a cause for it." Odo took a rebellious swallow from his glass, even while he recognized that it wasn't nearly as tasty as the one served to him by Aroya. Dax watched him with concerned eyes.

"Not a good date?" she asked sympathetically.

"I have no idea," Odo commented, staring at his glass. "How exactly does one determine if a date was 'good' or not?" 

"I don't know. Some people would say it depends on whether or not you got lucky." Dax laughed at her own joke.

"Then I guess it was a good date," Odo growled, before diving back into his glass.

Dax froze, staring at him. "You mean lucky as in ... lucky?" 

"Depends." Odo gave her a wry grimace. "Lucky like in O'Brien's detective novels in that I didn't get shot? Or lucky like in O'Brien's detective novels in that I — what's the expression -'got laid'?" Odo snorted. "Either way, I got lucky." 

Thankful they were in a booth, Dax's hand flew out the activate the privacy buffer, causing all extraneous sound in the room to deaden abruptly. "I assume you don't want that all over the station, Odo!" 

"No ... I suppose not." Odo sipped at his drink glumly. Dax studied his face carefully, blue eyes concerned. 

"Odo — what happened? You don't sound like it was a very good experience." 

Odo thought about the question for a moment. "Have you ever been discussing something with someone — something in which you were vitally interested, something you thought the person you were talking with was interested in, too — only to realize after you finished what you had to say that she wasn't interested at all? That she was only being polite?" 

Dax considered his words carefully. "Ouch." 

"It was — disheartening," Odo conceded. 

"I'll bet." 

Odo shrugged. "The odd thing is — she was most insistent about my 'seeing' her again." 

"Well, that's promising." Dax's face brightened. "She _is_ Bajoran, Odo. Some Bajoran women think it's not polite for them to enjoy sex too much." 

"Humph," Odo grunted, not sounding entirely convinced. 

Dax, studying his troubled face, added gently, "Besides, it usually works a lot better if you — really care about the person you're with." 

"Ah." It was a noncommittal sound that spoke volumes. He stared broodingly into his drink, in a way that did not invite further comment. Dax decided to start over.

"So," Dax began, in an effort to lighten the mood, "I understand you're playing Camelot with us tomorrow night." 

"That's right." Odo brightened a little. It seemed like such a comparatively harmless subject.

"I know that Kira's really looking forward to it." 

"Is she?" Odo looked up with sudden eagerness, which he quickly beat back down. Dax gave him one of her serene, Mona-Lisa smiles.

"Don't worry about it. I still have Curzon lurking around in here, you know." She tapped her chest. 

"Is that supposed to reassure me?" Odo managed a little smile. "I get the feeling that Curzon was a worse gossip than you are." 

Dax's smile was torn between amusement and indignation. "I am _not_ a gossip! I just like to gather information! If I _were_ a gossip --"

"I know," Odo circumvented her, raising his hand. "Well, I had better bid you good-night, Commander. This body takes a lot more regeneration time than my old one did." 

Odo dragged himself to his quarters, and began to rigorously follow his newly developed bedtime routine. Teeth and gums were carefully attended, and a sonic shower five minutes in duration — no more, no less — cleansed the day's dirt and secretions from his body, along with the scent of the perfume of the woman he'd just slept with.

_Slept with,_ Odo mused wryly. _Neither of us slept a wink. Humans are so odd, with their fifty-thousand synonyms for the reproductive act._

Reproductive. Odo's eyes widened. He hoped to the Prophets that Aroya was sharp enough — and non-manipulative enough — to have gotten her birth control shots. Odo supposed he could get some himself, but shuddered at the very thought of approaching Bashir with such a request. Abandoning the shower, Odo pulled on a robe, purloined from the Infirmary, and headed out into his living area, settling in the one comfortable chair he had managed to obtain and picking up a dataPADD from the small table that stood at its side. He was more or less happily absorbed in _The Idylls of the King_ when the doorcom sounded.

_Who can it be at such an hour?_ He wasn't one to encourage guests even at normal times ... Odo looked up, curious. "Come!" he called, laying aside the PADD and carefully arranging his robe over his knees. The door <swished> open to reveal Major Kira, casually thrown together in an ill-matched tunic and leggings. 

"Major." Odo inclined his head gravely. "Is there something I can do for you?" 

Kira smiled and shrugged. "I wasn't able to sleep. According to the computer, you were out here instead of in your bedroom, so I assumed you couldn't either. I thought you might be up for a game of kistrel, or just a talk." 

Kistrel was the Bajoran equivalent of chess. Odo and Kira had been fairly avid kistrel opponents in the past, and it definitely seemed like a safer option to the cautious constable than spending the wee hours engaging the major in intimate conversation. 

"Certainly, Major. Let me get my kistrel set." Holding his robe carefully around him, Odo got to his feet and went to one of the built-in wall cabinets, extracting the kistrel set and the octagonal board that went with it. He turned to find Kira watching him with an amused smile.

"What's funny, Major?" 

Kira shook her head a little even while her smile deepened. "I don't know ... I just never pictured you as ..." 

She paused, not seeming to be so much at a loss for words as to be hunting for better ones. "As?" Odo said helpfully.

Kira shrugged, a splash of color staining her cheeks. "I figured you for the pajamas type — not someone who'd sleep in his underwear." She nodded at Odo's bare legs emerging from beneath the knee- length blue robe. 

"Underwear?" Odo retorted, before his fair skin flushed red as he recognized his own admission. Kira looked into his face with fascinated delight.

"Constable, I never thought I'd see you blush." 

Odo let out an amused snort as he saw the humor of the situation. "Stick around, Major — I'm coming out with all sorts of new behavior these days." 

Kira's look softened to a compassionate smile. "I'm glad you're able to laugh about it now — at least a little." 

"I thought you wanted to play kistrel," Odo observed. "I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of a place to sit yet ... let me move this chair over near that one -"he nodded at the chair affixed to the floor in front of the computer terminal"- and you can sit here, and I'll sit there." 

"Sounds pretty complicated. Let's just sit on the floor." 

Odo considered the ramifications of sitting on the floor in his present attire. "If you don't mind, I think I'll put on some pants first." 

Kira grinned. "You do that, Constable. May I fix myself something to drink?" 

"Certainly — help yourself." Odo disappeared into the bedroom and returned a few moments later in a pair of black trousers and a tunic that looked suspiciously like an Infirmary pajama top. Kira met him with a smile and a full glass that she held out to him.

"I hate to drink alone. Here you go — one gamma-star." 

Odo took the glass slowly, unsmiling. "I see. Word certainly travels fast here, doesn't it?" 

"Word about what?" Kira stared at Odo, puzzled, and he realized too late that she genuinely had no idea what he was talking about. "You mean the drink? I had one at the Celestial Cafe — I liked it so much I thought you might like to try it, too." Kira cocked her head to one side, her eyes narrowed in puzzlement. "Word about what?" she repeated.

"I had a dinner date earlier this evening — you were with me when I made it, remember?" 

"That's right." Kira smiled. "How did it go?" 

"Quite well, I suppose." Odo gulped absent-mindedly at the drink in his hand, and remembered too late its potent effect. "I think I should have this analyzed for its content," he said dryly. "There's something in here ... I'm not sure what it is, but it's very powerful." 

"Are you feeling tipsy?" Kira reached out to lay a gentle hand on Odo's arm. He shuddered as he experienced that light touch in every fiber of his being. Shaking himself, he took his seat on the floor, setting up the kistrel board with quick, determined movements. 

"Let's play," he said decidedly. Kira gave him an odd look but took her place across from him without a murmur. 

They were soon completely absorbed in the machinations of the game — Odo's particular kistrel set pitted Bajorans against Cardassians, and Kira pushed around her red playing pieces around with all the ferocity she had displayed in the Resistance, while Odo deployed his black ones with a tenacity surpassing that of any Cardassian gul.

This time the Bajorans won. Kira let out a yelp of triumph. "Finally! Do you know how many times you've walked all over me playing this, Odo?" 

"Too many gamma-stars," Odo observed. He noticed, surprised, that two more empty glasses stood near to his hand. Kira had an equal number, but he had never seen the Bajoran major so much as tipsy, even after a night's drinking so hard that it would put Morn under the table. Besides, he had gotten a head start on her ... Odo clambered to his feet, startled to find himself swaying dizzily. Kira hastened to stand as well, reaching out to steady him.

"Constable, I think you _are_ tipsy." 

"Mmm," Odo murmured in a tone of assent. "I think you're right." He could feel the blood rushing through his veins, with an odd feeling of senses both numbed and yet strangely heightened. He was certainly more aware of his body as waves of conflicting feeling washed over him ... Odo stared at Kira longingly. _Still so beautiful, and Shakaar is gone_... He leaned towards her, and nearly lost his balance. 

"Hold on there!" Catching him by the shoulders, Kira laughingly helped Odo right himself. As her brown eyes met and held on Odo's blue ones, Kira's smile slowly faded. 

"What is it?" Odo whispered as Kira continued to stare into his eyes. Her hands had slipped from his shoulders to rest awkwardly against his chest, and her face held an unfathomable expression.

"I just — it's been hell for you, hasn't it?" 

Somehow Kira's simple question brought all of the past months' anguish slamming into Odo's consciousness. He winced, letting his head fall in a tired nod of assent. "Major, you don't know the half of it." 

"I'm sorry," she murmured. Odo was amazed when Kira suddenly raised herself on tiptoe, pressing her lips against his, but he nonetheless leaned into the kiss hungrily. After starting in surprise, Kira let her mouth linger on his for a moment, softening and opening — he had a brief sense of warm wetness, and the delicate taste of her tongue — before she stepped away abruptly.

"I'd better get out of here before I do something we'll both regret in the morning." 

"It _is_ morning," Odo informed her solemnly. He didn't know whether to be dismayed or relieved at her sudden withdrawal. He was acutely aware of a renewal of interest from the area of his groin, and felt rather defrauded — he thought that alcohol was supposed to deaden such responses. 

"It is, isn't it?" Kira let out a strained laugh, running a hand back through her short hair. She sighed. "We're both just too vulnerable right now — I don't think we could manage to have a friendly flight and then walk away from it." 

"I imagine you're right." Odo had only the vaguest idea what Kira was talking about, but it sounded accurate. He decided that a hasty retreat to his chair was in order, where he arranged himself so that no unsightly bulge would be apparent. Kira's eyes, however, were fixed on the floor, as she murmured an incoherent good-bye and fled. 

Suddenly drained past all endurance, Odo retreated into his bedroom, where he pulled off his clothes and collapsed on the bed, sinking gratefully into oblivion. 

 

* * *

Too few hours later, Odo somehow managed to crawl out of bed make his painful way to the Promenade. He was about to round the corner into the Infirmary in search of a hangover remedy when the sound of talking within made him pause in his tracks. Once he heard Kira's voice, he couldn't have budged if he'd wanted to. 

"Dax, do you really have to be so cheerful?" Kira said dryly. Odo moved a little closer to the wall, listening intently.

"What the hell did you get into last night?" Dax wondered. "I didn't think you ever got drunk." 

"I don't. I just feel vile this morning. I don't think it was the liquor, I think it was those damn replicated herbs. Dammit, where the hell is Julian?" 

Dax chuckled. "Herbs, huh? Don't tell me you were at the Celestial Cafe." 

"No, I was sitting in Odo's quarters playing kistrel!" Kira's voice dropped to a lower, softer tone. "Dax, I may have done something really stupid." 

Odo, about to bow to guilt at his own eavesdropping, was immediately distracted from further exploration of his conscience. He scarcely dared to breathe as Dax asked, "What did you do? Nerys, you and Odo didn't --"

"No!" Kira exclaimed strongly, so strongly that Odo winced. Then she admitted, shame echoing in every syllable, "I just came on to him." 

"You mean you made a pass at him?" Odo could practically hear Dax's eyes widening as she spoke. "Kira — why?" 

"I don't know!" Kira's exasperation was evident. "I was just — lonely. Odo's always been there for me — now that he's human, for a second there I thought he might be there for me in another way. It was a really, really stupid thing to do." 

As was, Odo realized, continuing to linger right outside the door of the Infirmary. Straightening his uniform tunic, he backed up a few steps before continuing to where he could enter the Infirmary at his normal pace. He felt a trifle sheepish as Kira and Dax both started guiltily. 

"Ladies." He inclined his head gravely. Kira looked like she would happily transport to the surface of Cardassia without a phaser, wearing nothing but her underwear. Dax's eyes narrowed quizzically as Odo continued, "I needed to consult with Dr. Bashir before staff meeting this morning — is he here?" 

"Not right now," Dax replied. "Kira needs to see him, too — why don't I just leave you both to it? Are you still on for Camelot tonight, Odo?" 

"Certainly, Commander." Odo nodded to Dax again as she exited, while Kira shot a look after her that bespoke her heartfelt sense of betrayal. Once the Trill was gone, however, Kira steeled herself and took the bull by the horns.

"Constable, I — I'm sorry about last night." 

Odo looked at her curiously. "Why are you sorry?" 

Kira sighed and plugged onward. "It's like I said last night — you're very vulnerable right now, and inexperienced on top of it. The last thing you need is someone like me confusing all those new hormones." 

"I'm not as inexperienced as I was," Odo commented dryly. To Kira's sudden questioning look he added, "I suppose you might say that, technically speaking, my date with Aroya was what you would call a _good_ date." 

"Oh!" Kira stared at him, wide-eyed, and seemingly somewhat at a loss. "Well — that's great — right?" 

Odo shook his head. "I haven't got the faintest idea. We're having dinner again tomorrow night — but I must admit I'm looking forward to tonight in the holosuite with you and Dax more." Odo felt quite proud of himself. He had added the "and Dax" without a trace of a pause.

"I'm glad." Kira managed a faint smile. "I was afraid you wouldn't even want to look at me today." 

"You've always been easy to look at, Major." Odo avoided meeting Kira's suddenly questioning eyes, instead peering beyond her and saying, "Good morning, Doctor. It looks like you're treating a sizable portion of the senior staff this morning." 

"Oh?" Julian Bashir looked questioningly from one shuttered face to another. "What seems to be the problem?" 

"Too many gamma-stars," Kira said dryly. Bashir smiled and activated a med-scanner, running it over first Kira, and then the Security Chief. He then turned and selected a hypospray.

"This should work for both of you," he observed. "However, I think I should warn you that these gamma-stars need to be approached with extreme caution. I don't get any special readings from you, Major, but you, Constable — were you drinking from the same replicator batch?" 

"Not entirely," Odo admitted. Bashir nodded, not surprised. 

"Well, that makes sense ... some of whatever you drank, Constable, contained a very powerful aph -"Bashir suddenly paused, looking uncomfortable. Odo stared at him curiously.

"A very powerful what, Doctor?" 

Kira gave Bashir a knowing look. "Would you like me to leave, Julian?" 

"That might be best," the doctor acceded. He smiled at Kira apologetically, deftly wielding the hypospray to give her an injection. "That should take care of you, Major — let me know if you have any other problems." 

Kira nodded and walked out, a faint, worried pucker still catching at the space between her eyebrows. Odo, after watching her go, turned to face Bashir squarely. "What is it, Doctor?" 

Bashir quietly administered another shot to Odo as he explained. "It's just that — something you ingested last night contained an extremely potent aphrodisiac." 

Odo's eyes widened as his thoughts flew to Aroya handing him the glass holding his first gamma-star of the evening, and the events that had followed shortly thereafter. _But that doesn't make sense,_ he thought automatically. _I was already going back to her quarters with her_ \- _wasn't that signal enough that I was willing to have sex with her?_ Odo wondered if he had perhaps misunderstood some of the cultural allusions in Chief O'Brien's detective novels. 

"It's also an illegal one," Bashir continued reluctantly. "A fairly recent discovery — the plant it's extracted from is native to a moon in the Noleris system, in the Gamma quadrant." 

"The Gamma quadrant?" Odo shook his head, bewildered. "We get a lot of traffic in contraband from the Gamma quadrant because of our proximity to the wormhole, but I still don't understand —" Odo remembered who he was talking to, considered his options, sighed, and went on. "Doctor, I went to dinner with Chalan Aroya last night, and to her quarters afterwards. I'm quite sure that was when I was given the drink with the — illegal drug in it." 

"Ah." The consummate master of the noncommittal syllable, Bashir nodded knowingly. 

"The thing is — I was already there. Doesn't that indicate a certain — willingness, as a rule?" 

Bashir smiled a little. "Well, that depends — were you acting 'willing'?" 

"As willing as I care to act." Odo snorted indignantly. "Isn't it possible that this drug is just a regular component of the drink in question? Quark did mention that he couldn't replicate all of the herbs last night." 

"Meaning that Miss Chalan is using contraband to ensure authenticity? I can stop by the Celestial Cafe and analyze the drink, if you think that might help." 

"You won't — ?"

"I'll be the soul of discretion. I'll just order one and wave my tricorder over it when no one's looking. What's it called, anyway?" 

"It's something called a gamma-star." 

"One gamma-star — coming up!" Bashir smiled at his own joke. Odo didn't feel like smiling, but pushed the conflicting emotions out of his mind as he murmured a brief farewell and headed out onto the Promenade. 

In some ways it made distressing, bitter sense. If a person wanted to smuggle an illegal substance onto the station and make use of it as part of their regular business operations, who better to form an intimate relationship with than the station's Chief of Security? And he had actually let himself believe that she was attracted to him! Had let her — 

Odo checked this train of thought abruptly and headed for his office, where he settled behind the desk to begin his daily attack on the myriad forms and reports that beset him. But once there he buried his face in his hands instead, a long shudder rippling across his thin shoulders.

Even without Bashir confirming his suspicions, Odo knew that what the doctor would find. The pretty restaurateur had set out cold-bloodedly and deliberately to seduce the chief of station security, taking no joy in the act of doing so.

Letting his hands fall to his sides, Odo stared at himself in the computer console's darkly reflective surface. Smooth, inhuman features stared back at him, as they had continued to do so, mocking him, ever since his transformation had taken place.

_The face_ , the security chief in question thought tiredly, _the face is still the same. For all the limits and longings this body has cursed me with, it's the same damned face._

Odo straightened slowly, as a foreign but oddly familiar notion filtered into his brain. _By the Prophets, they condemned me to be human._ _So human is what I'm going to be._

Odo pushed resolutely away from his desk and moved out on to the Promenade, not looking back as he returned to the Infirmary. When Bashir looked up, surprised, the former changeling said, "Doctor, there's something else I'd like you to do for me ..." 

 

* * *

Late that same evening, Kira Nerys forced herself to go by Odo's office, in order to give him his costume for the evening's holosuite adventure. She had been by twice before during the afternoon, but the constable had been absent, no doubt off attending to some matter of station security. Now she froze as she came through the door at the sight of the unfamiliar figure seated behind Odo's desk, plugging away diligently at the Security Chief's computer console.

The human male who sat there looked up as she entered, giving her an odd smile. He looked to be fifty-something, with sandy hair worn back in the same severe style affected by her friend, a singularly impressive nose, and a rather puckish set to his features. His eyes were a bright, clear blue. 

Kira stared at him, her mouth falling open as recognition finally struck. " _Odo?_ "

"Major." The voice was still the same, a deep bass rumble. The odd little smile deepened, looking almost — shy? "What do you think? I decided that if I had to _be_ human, then I should _look_ human, too." 

"I — I don't know what to think." Kira studied her friend's new face earnestly. She was glad to see that Bashir had opted to give Odo's features character rather than beauty, the result being a cast that oddly suited him. She asked, feeling strangely shy herself, "Did you chose your face or did Julian?" 

"The doctor had a number of suggestions." Odo's newly defined lips twisted in a moue of amusement as he remembered some of them. "I thought this — seemed right, somehow." 

Kira nodded slowly, smiling. "I liked your old face just fine — but you're right. If you want to look like a human, this suits you." She studied Odo's features more critically. "It isn't exactly what I'd call handsome, but you look nice. Pleasant. It's —" she considered her next words carefully "— an expressive face. And you look kind." 

"Harumph." Odo's brow darkened in a ferocious scowl. "I'm not sure kindness is the image I want to convey." 

"Then just do that." Kira grinned, finally dropping into the chair in front of the desk. "Very fierce and no-nonsense." 

"Excellent." The next surprise from the constable came in the form of a singularly wicked smirk. Kira laughed out loud. 

"You know, it's going to take some getting used to, but I like it. It makes you seem more — accessible." 

"Thank you, Major." Odo's mouth softened into a gentle smile as his blue eyes lingered on Kira's face. Kira could feel her own smile fade as she studied her friend's newly mobile features. 

_Why did I never notice his eyes before?_ she wondered. _They haven't changed, just the setting around them ... but a person could drown in those eyes._

Kira abruptly pulled herself together and finally remembered the box that she carried, shoving it across the desk.

"Here's what I promised you. Your costume for tonight." 

"Thank you again." Odo reached out to take the package, and their fingertips brushed briefly. Kira could feel the blood start pounding in her ears as their eyes met and held — she tore her gaze away and got briskly to her feet. 

"Then Dax and I will see you tonight, Constable — twenty-one hundred hours?" 

"I'll be there," Odo promised. His voice was as deep and soft as black velvet.

Kira turned tail and fled. 

 

* * *

Dax, who had been forewarned by Bashir, greeted Constable Odo with equanimity when he joined her and Kira outside the upper level entrance to Quark's, as well as with loud kisses on both cheeks.

"Odo, you're gorgeous," she proclaimed. "Which is not to say you weren't pretty damned attractive before." 

If this comment had come from anyone but Dax — or perhaps a certain red-haired major — Odo would have snorted skeptically. As it was, he blushed. Kira, standing to one side as she twisted nervously at a fold in the voluminous skirt of her costume, listened to Dax's easy banter with a stab of envy. 

_He_ is _gorgeous_ , Kira thought, distracted, _but it's not the face_ — _it's something else. Something I imagine has always been there_ — _so why didn't I see it before now? Just because he was a changeling?_ Even in her thoughts, Kira rejected that notion of prejudice. _No, I don't think so_ — _that doesn't feel like the answer. Is it just what I told him earlier_ — _that he seems more accessible? But Odo's always been accessible to me, at least until_ — 

The realization that followed the "until" made Kira's mouth fall open — and then she looked up, startled, to realize that Odo and Dax were both studying her curiously. "You didn't answer Odo's question, Kira," Dax observed. "Where did you get his costume? It's really marvelous." 

"Even if I feel ridiculous," Odo added. Kira studied her choice now that the recipient was wearing it and silently agreed that she had done well. The cut of the bluish-gray doublet and hose suited the constable's lean frame, while the color brought out his eyes. Kira smiled.

"It wasn't easy, but fortunately Garak doesn't have much to do in his holding cell. I'm with Dax — I think you look great." Kira's eyes narrowed curiously. "But where's your crown?" 

"I thought I'd just carry it till I got here." Odo raised his hand, holding out the multi-tined silver circlet. As the two women watched expectantly, he sighed and set it reluctantly on his head. Kira and Dax both studied his altered visage raptly, breaking into delighted smiles.

The moonstones set under each of the crown's spires seemed like pale mirrors of the questioning, faintly humorous eyes that looked out beneath them. As Odo smiled cautiously, Kira suddenly realized, _That's it. That's the difference. His face_ \- _it's so_ readable. _I can tell what he's thinking, what he's feeling, and I was never sure before. It's like_ — _a darkened room when the light's suddenly turned on. At first it can blind you, but then you can see whatever's there to be seen._ Another realization soon followed, _I don't know if Odo's going to like that at_ all.

"Let's get into the holosuite before my credibility's completely destroyed," Odo said dryly. Dax laughingly led the way, maneuvering with grace through the warren of tables on Quark's upper level to open the doors to — Camelot.

Odo evaluated the holosuite setting, nodding solemnly and completely ignoring the various holographic characters who bowed or curtsied as he entered. "I assume from the costumes that we're trying for Tennyson's interpretation?" 

Dax looked a little surprised. "Lerner and Lowe, actually." 

"Who?" 

"Never mind," Kira interjected. "Let's just do it." 

Dax had apparently chosen a gentle introduction for the new player, and Sir Lancelot was nowhere in evidence. The scene was a banqueting hall, from whence was staged Guinevere's attempted abduction by a rival king. Guinevere, who had never quite accepted her character's passivity, put in some fairly good hits of her own before Arthur finally managed to dispatch her attacker with a broadsword. The action had meanwhile carried them from the banqueting hall to the gardens of the castle, where the holographic attacker didn't so much as mar the grass before silently disappearing after his demise. 

"Milord, I am indebted." It had been a struggle, but with practice Kira had picked up the jargon. She held out her hand to her rescuer, who took it gravely in his.

"Milady." The soft, rumbling reply had a decidedly kingly aspect. "My life is, as always, but to serve you." Eyes never leaving her face, 'Arthur' carried 'Guinevere's' hand to his lips. 'Guinevere' felt decidedly dizzy, but tried to put it down to her recent assault.

The sharp <beep!> of a communicator shattered the newly acquired peace in the simulated garden. Dax, who had just had a most enjoyable time dispatching two of the rival king's minions, identified the source of the interruption as coming from the combadge hidden in the bodice of her dress.

"Sorry, it's mine." She extracted the badge from her bosom and responded, "Dax here." 

"Commander, I'm sorry to interfere with your time off-duty, but there's a little matter in Ops requiring your attention and I'm afraid it won't wait." Benjamin Sisko's tone was apologetic. "Can you meet me there in say, five minutes?" 

"Sooner than that if you don't mind the pointy hat," Dax said with a grin. "Dax out." She gave Kira and Odo a contrite smile. "I have to leave for a few minutes — do you mind just staying here and carrying on without me? We've got another hour — I hope I can get back for part of it." 

"Sure," Kira agreed. Odo nodded his acquiescence. They both watched as Dax activated the holosuite door and departed, before turning to each other questioningly.

"What do we do now?" Odo asked finally.

"I don't know ... I guess we just walk in the garden till she gets back." 

"All right." That wonderful, elfish smile touching his lips, Odo suddenly held out his arm. "Milady?" 

"Milord." Smiling, Kira twined her fingers lightly around the crook of the constable's elbow. "Come on, let's go see the roses." 

A few bends around some hedges found them surrounded by masses of old-fashioned terran shrub roses, sprawling bushes loaded with red, yellow, pink, and white blooms. Kira stepped close to bury her nose in one of the blossoms appreciatively, abandoning all pretense of maintaining her character as she said, "Bashir was telling Dax and me that the different rose colors all have different meanings." She gave Odo a confiding smile as she urged him, "Come on, smell. It's a really good program — they're wonderful." 

Odo applied his considerable proboscis to a large pink rose. "Mmm... you're right. So, what would this pink one tell you?" He tapped the petals with his forefinger, turning to eye Kira with a look both curious and indulgent.

"Pink? That's friendship — affection." 

"I see. What about this one?" Odo shifted his attention to a yellow rose with a faint tinge of pink along the edge of its petals.

"Yellow? That's what you send to a lover to tell him good-bye — a final good-bye." Kira's mouth twisted in grimace. "Maybe I should find some real ones and send them to Shakaar — hell, maybe I should just try to grow myself a bush of them so I'm always prepared." The lovely Bajoran's face was unsmiling, bitter, and Odo reached out without thinking to squeeze her shoulder consolingly. 

"I'm sorry, Major." 

Kira smiled a little, reaching up to cover his hand with hers. "What are _you_ sorry for? You're the one man I can always count on being there for me." 

_The one man I can always count on_ ... Kira's smile faded as the implication of her own words sank home. Odo withdrew his hand and turned away hastily, fixing his attention on the remaining rose bushes. 

"So, the colors — what about the white ones? And the red?" 

"According to Bashir, the two have gotten mixed up, and he's not sure which is which, but one is for passion, and one is for true love." 

"Ah." Odo let his fingers caress first a white blossom, and then a red one. He stared at the flowers a long time, before daring to steal a glance at Kira. She was still gazing, transfixed, at the yellow roses, an unfathomable expression on her taut face. 

_Now._ The voice was insistent, irresistible as it echoed in Odo's brain. _It's now or never._

His fingers moved of what seemed to be their own volition as Odo carefully broke off a red bloom, and then a white one. He turned toward Kira, holding out both flowers to her in his outstretched hand. Staring at them a long time, Kira finally accepted the floral offering into a grasp that clearly shook. Her wide brown eyes caught Odo's in a questioning stare.

The words, when they came, were simpler than Odo had ever imagined. He shrugged and said, "I just thought it was time that you knew." 

Kira brought the flowers slowly to her face, pressing the soft petals against her cheeks. She then let them fall from nerveless fingers as she stretched out both her hands. "Odo —"

Scarcely daring to believe, Odo reached out slowly to capture her hands in his. He stepped closer so that their joined hands were the only thing that separated their bodies, looking down into Kira's upturned face. 

"Major." He realized as he said it how ridiculous it sounded, but he couldn't quite force his lips to shape the syllables of her name — her given name, the name he had never dared to call her except in his secret dreams.

"Constable." Her smile irradiating her face, Kira took her hands from Odo's so she could slide her arms around his waist. Odo cautiously put his arms around Kira in return, taking a careful investigator's note of her half-closed eyes and softly parted lips. _A kiss. I could almost swear that she wants me to kiss her._ Odo lowered his face carefully, finally daring to touch his mouth to hers, and breathed a little sigh of relief when she didn't pull away. Instead Kira's lips parted further, her tongue making a delicate inquiry after his — Odo let instinct take over as he began to kiss the woman in his arms with the pent-up passion of a lifetime.

"Prophets," Kira whispered after some untimed interval, her hands sliding up Odo's chest to gently cup his face. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" 

Odo tried to think of a good answer, and found himself quite at a loss. "I — it was my face," he said finally. "My face got in the way." 

"Oh. I see." Kira neither agreed with nor refuted his words, merely accepted them as his explanation. The unabashed tenderness in her smile was like balm on a soul that had been bleeding for years. "It's still not a very handsome face," she said softly, tracing the bridge of his nose with a gentle fingertip, "but it's kind, and it's sensitive, and it's honorable. It's very, very lovable." 

Odo let out a little moan as Kira's lips once again began to explore his, and her arms slipped back around him, her hands sliding unerringly down his back to pull him more tightly against her. He could feel the blood of arousal coursing through his veins, hot and insistent, and was grateful for the voluminous folds of Kira's skirt that were hopefully keeping his condition from becoming too obvious. He finally found the strength to gasp, even though the gasp was only a whisper, "Nerys ..." 

"Come on." Kira stepped back and took his hand in hers. "Let's get out of here." 

"But we promised Dax —"

"Dax can deal with it." 

"I suppose she can, at that." Odo followed Kira from the holosuite without further protest. It wasn't until they were out on the main Promenade and getting ready to step into a turbolift that he thought to ask, "Where are we going?" 

"Habitat Ring," Kira instructed the turbolift as the doors closed. "I thought we might go to my quarters, or yours, if you'd like." Her expression was suddenly shy, and she avoided his gaze, choosing to study the floor instead.

"Level, please," inquired the flat tones of the computer. 

"Level 12," Odo supplied quickly. It was the level where his own quarters were located, one level down from Kira's. 

_My quarters,_ he thought, _my bed. A place where no other lover has ever been_ — _only this one, and this one only in my dreams._

Kira smiled, and was finally able to meet his eyes. Somehow, in some way he might eventually ask her to explain to him, his choice had been the right one. "Your quarters will be fine," she agreed, her voice a soft caress on his ears. When the turbolift stopped they proceeded down the corridor that led to Odo's door in silence, not touching, but Odo could swear that he could feel the heat coming off Kira's body in waves. As for his own physical state — he was deeply grateful that they didn't meet anyone on the way, as the doublet and hose did nothing to disguise his acute condition. When they finally reached their destination, Odo keyed in his lockcode with fingers that shook so badly that he had to re-enter the numbers twice. 

Kira slipped into the darkened quarters ahead of him, her skirts brushing against him lightly in passing. Calling for the lights, Odo took distracted notice of his single comfortable chair.

_Another chair_ , he thought, _I need to get another chair. Maybe even a sofa, so we can sit together._ Then panic slammed into him from nowhere. _That depends on whether she ever wants to come back, doesn't it?_

Then he felt Kira step up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her body against his. She blew softly against the back of his neck. "Constable," she said softly, "you need a haircut." 

Odo managed a light chuckle, taking Kira's hands in his and drawing them up his chest. Kira, contrary-minded, slid her palms down over his ribcage and belly, coming perilously close to the very unruly member that threatened to hammer its way through his clothing. Odo sighed and let out a little groan as Kira nuzzled at his back, rubbing her face against the soft velvet of his doublet. _What had she been talking about? Oh! Yes_ — "A haircut? I suppose that I do. I'm not used to having to take time for it — I'll have to work it in." 

"Do you have a pair of scissors? And a comb?" Kira asked softly. Extracting himself from her embrace, Odo turned to look at her, surprise circumventing passion, at least for a moment.

"Scissors? Why?" 

Kira smiled. "We had to do a lot of things for each other when I was in the Resistance. I got to where I could give a pretty good haircut." 

"Oh ... all right." _Was she getting 'cold feet', as the humans said? Or just postponing the moment?_ "I do, actually — I was working on something that required them." Odo went and retrieved the required objects from their storage places, returning to place them gingerly into Kira's outstretched hand. Kira smiled a little, nodding at the chair that stood before the computer console.

"Take off your jacket and sit there. It shouldn't take me more than twenty minutes." 

Odo slowly removed the blue velvet doublet, putting it away carefully. Wearing nothing but the matching skin-tight hose, he took the seat that Kira indicated, trying and failing to find a position that would prove comfortable for his raging erection.

Kira removed her own elaborate veiled headdress, tossing it into the other chair. Odo could feel the warmth radiating from her body as she stepped up close behind him and began snipping away confidently at his hair. Her fingertips were soft, sensuous as they teased and played with the sandy locks, fluffing them first this way and then that as she considered her options — Odo dared to turn his head to kiss Kira's hand when she pressed it briefly against his cheek, and was rewarded by her lips descending softly against the top of his head. A bit longer than twenty minutes later, Kira finally stepped away and moved to where she could stand in front of him. Studying Odo critically, she finally nodded her head and smiled. 

"It looks good. I think you'll like it. Do you have a mirror?" 

Odo shook his head. "Only in the bathroom." 

"Well, go take a look at it. You probably want to shower off the little bits of hair, anyway. Don't worry," she added softly, when Odo gave her a questioning look, "I'll still be here when you get back." 

"All right," Odo said faintly, forcing himself to stand, even though it brought him perilously close to Kira, who smiled up at him in serene anticipation. Odo hastily withdrew into the bathroom, where he stared, transfixed, at the face that met him in the mirror. 

Kira had cut his hair in subtle layers, rather than the straight, severe lines to which he was accustomed, and brushed it off to the side so that it fluffed forward a bit over his forehead. It was radically different from the severe, combed-back style he had copied from Dr. Mora — the transformation was complete. The man who stared back from the mirror was just that — a _man_.

Odo shucked off the hose and stepped into the shower, automatically following Kira's suggestion and ridding himself of the small, itching bits of hair. He then pulled on his robe, taking one last look at himself before turning back and heading slowly back into the bedroom. The lights were lower than he had left them, and he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Kira's Guinevere dress draped tidily over the single lesser spire he had kept from his shapeshifting apparatus, a nostalgic monument in the corner of his bedroom. He turned cautiously toward the bed, where Kira lay waiting for him, propped up on one elbow, the covers pushed back to reveal the length of her body. She was naked.

Odo crossed the room slowly, and sat down on the edge of the bed, his eyes fixed on Kira's face. He reached out to touch her cheek, and Kira caught his hand in both of hers, pressing it passionately to her lips.

"I was starting to think you'd locked yourself in the bathroom and were going to hide there until I gave up and left," Kira said softly. "I think you should know by now, Constable, that I can be _very_ persistent until I get my way." 

"I seem to recall that." Odo touched his fingertip to Kira's forehead, drawing it down the bridge of her nose and watching her shiver in pleasure. With a strange feeling of curiosity, he continued his exploration to her lips, and over her determined chin to the smooth line of her neck beneath — Kira's breathing deepened, her eyes narrowed, as Odo ran the same questioning finger over the curve of her breast, tracing it in a thoughtful circle around her erect nipple. Kira let out a soft gasp, and reached out to draw Odo insistently into her arms. 

"Come here and kiss me." 

Odo was glad to pursue an activity with which he was starting to feel a certain level of comfort, reinforced by Kira's contented sigh when their lips finally parted. He jumped a little as she slid her hands inside the facings of his robe, pushing it off his shoulders and beginning to nibble at the newly exposed flesh. He was startled to learn that his own nipples were apparently just as sensitive as Kira's — and then her hands found the tie that held the robe closed around his waist, and gently but inexorably unfastened it. Odo got to his feet, letting the garment fall from his body to pool on the floor beneath him. He steeled himself to let Kira study his nude form, even though he cringed inwardly. 

_The last man she saw naked was Shakaar. This may be a hunch on my part, but something tells me he was just a bit more impressive._

But there was no trace of disappointment in Kira's frank gaze as she looked at him — if anything, her lips curved appreciatively as her eyes lingered on his erect penis. "I have one question, Constable," she said softly.

"Certainly, Major." Two could play at that game, he supposed, and it certainly had the merit of being familiar.

"Why don't you pass out when that happens?" 

"Pass out?" Odo stared at Kira, puzzled. "Do Bajoran males — ?" 

Kira gave a little grin, reaching out to draw him down slowly against her. "So much blood flow lost to your brain. I'd heard that human males tended to be bigger in that department, but I've never had occasion to check it out before now." She kissed him, a slow, sensual embrace. She then eased him back against the narrow bed, running a questioning finger of her own down his chest and belly, until it could trace the lines of the organ in question. "No ridges," she commented simply. 

"Oh ... no, apparently human males don't have them." Odo thought briefly about the neat line of ridges that Bajoran males possessed on top of their penises, near the base, that usually corresponded in size and number with the ridges on their noses. "Do you think you'll miss them?" he asked, with a sudden stab of anxiety.

"I don't know," Kira admitted. "But I think it's time we found out." She drew Odo back into her arms, between her parted thighs, and then smiled at him as he hovered, poised, over her waiting body. "Odo, _seleyl'a ti_."

Humans had so many euphemisms for the physical act of love between a man and a woman — Bajorans had only one, simple and primal. Odo shuddered as he heard Kira's soft-voiced request, and finally let her guide him into the moist warmth of her waiting depths.

It was a journey filled with remarkable revelations. 

The only thing he could think of at first was how much _better_ it was, better than Aroya, better than any experience in his life except for perhaps his first real taste of the Great Link. The rich scent of Kira's body, her soft, involuntary gasps as he moved against her, the sudden contractions of her vagina accompanying her orgasm that in turn sent him moaning over the edge from joy into ecstasy. Kira cried out as well, muffling her scream against his chest, clenching her fingers so tightly into his shoulders that it hurt.

"I guess that answers your question," Kira finally managed, laughing, as she ran her hands over the length of Odo's back, catching his buttocks in her palms and grasping him to her firmly, not letting him withdraw from his place between her thighs. Her face was radiant, alight with happiness — Odo reached up and touched her cheek, almost shivering with delight at the soft feel of her skin, of her warm flesh against his, and his own inner surety that he had left her contented and satisfied. Kira reached up in turn, tracing the bridge of his nose with her fingertip.

"I was wrong," she said softly. "It _is_ a handsome face. No — it's a beautiful face." 

Odo was entirely unprepared for the emotion that washed over him in a devastating, inescapable tide.

_Anger._

He pulled out of her arms and lay back against the bed, appalled at the intensity of the feeling that beset him. More than anger, almost rage — he brought his hands to his face, covering his eyes to shut out the light. He heard Kira's outraged, "What the —?" and then, when he continued to lie there, shuddering, felt her hand come to rest tentatively against his chest. 

"Odo — are you all right?" 

When he opened his mouth to speak, even Odo wasn't sure what he was going to say. The words came out as a strangled croak. "Why — why did it matter?" 

"Why did what matter?" Kira's words sounded genuinely bewildered. "What is it, Odo?" 

Odo forced his hands away from his eyes, and sat up abruptly, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. "My face," he whispered. "Why did it make a difference?" 

"Your face —" The concern in Kira's voice was joined by a distinct note of irritation. "What are you talking about?" 

Odo got to his feet and crossed to the center of the room before whirling around to face her, blue eyes blazing. "Why did my having this face make such a difference, Nerys? What would have happened if I'd just stayed a changeling? Would I just have had to keep loving you and watching you with one lover after another? Have you hug me and tell me what a good friend I am? While all the time I'm standing there thinking what hell it is to belong to such a long-lived species? Because that's how long I could 'look forward' to being in love with you and knowing that you could never love me back! Why the big difference, Kira Nerys?!" 

Startled, Odo realized that he had been shouting, pretty much at the top of his lungs. Kira had slipped from the bed to stand facing him, her eyes wide and astonished and more than a little angry in return as she studied his tense face.

"Your _face_ has nothing to do with it!" She bit off the words. "Except that suddenly you looked like someone who might, just _might_ , consider loving me back!" She stopped, seemingly startled at what she herself had said. Then she pushed any questions she had aside to embrace the rage that possessed her.

"Yes, Mister 'You Humanoids'! What was I supposed to think? The way you always sneered at 'humanoid mating rituals'! Sneered and snorted and 'harumphed'! How the hell was I supposed to think that you would ever consider stooping to 'mate' with someone like me? In case you've forgotten, I was part of 'you humanoids'! Only now you're part of that whole humanoid mess, and I guess the face just made me think that you were someone who might be interested!" 

"Interested?" Odo froze, staring at her. "Interested in what?" His own anger drained from him like oil sliding from water, even while Kira's mounted to a fine blaze. 

"What do you think? Do you think I never thought about what it might be like to have you make love to me? You were a shapeshifter, dammit! Hell, Dax could write one of her papers on the kinds of fantasies an idea like that can churn up!" Tears began to stream down Kira's face, tears that she was too proud to dash away. "I guess I'm just too damned insensitive, but why should I think that you would ever care for someone like me when you kept insisting that you couldn't?" 

"I don't know," Odo whispered. "I never thought you could care for me, so I never wanted you to guess that I cared for you." 

"Oh, I knew that you cared for me! You're my friend, Odo — friends care about each other! I just figured my body would repulse you! But then, I realized you were human now _,_ and that maybe you might not find this body of mine so unattractive after all. Suddenly you — you have this face, and it has so many expressions in it, expressions that I can read, and just for a minute it looked like —"

"Like I wanted you?" The words were little more than a whisper. 

"Yes." Kira uttered the brief syllable resentfully, before turning her back on him to cross to the room's replicator. "One raktajino, two kava, extra hot." 

"You had no idea that I was in love with you." Somehow it was easier to ask the question while Kira had her back turned.

It was Kira's turn to turn her startled face back toward Odo, to stare at the rear of his head and wish she could see his averted visage. Even though the message of the roses had been clear, it was so much more indisputable to hear him actually _say_ it. In love with her. _In_ love with her. Kira braced herself to keep her legs from trembling. This wasn't just sex. Odo was in love with her. 

"I —" Kira paused, and sighed. "I — wondered what was wrong when you canceled our Tuesday morning meetings. I knew it was something more than you wanting to schedule extra training sessions for your deputies." She removed her mug from the replicator and turned back to Odo, her eyes solemn as they surveyed his. 

"You knew that?" 

"Of course I knew. I'm not _stupid_. It just took me aback — it was so unlike you to be dishonest with me." 

Odo winced at the flat accusation of dishonesty, even while he accepted it as truth. "I suppose love calls forth the worst in people." 

Kira gave a bitter laugh. "I think it does. Funny — it's supposed to call forth the best in us." 

"So — why didn't you say anything?" 

Kira stared at him, surprised. "I wasn't sure what it was — and if it was something like that, well — I'd just made another decision." 

Odo nodded slowly. "Shakaar." 

"Shakaar." 

"Are you still in love with him, Nerys?" 

Kira pondered the question, and shrugged. "I don't think so. I'm not sure if I ever was." She abandoned her mug back to the replicator, and shoved her hands distractedly through her short, tousled hair.

The anger had somehow slipped from the room, replaced with a blunt, tired honesty. Odo asked simply, "Then how do you feel about me?" 

"Odo, I _love_ you. I just don't know if —"

"If you're _in_ love with me?" Odo finished softly.

Kira nodded. She ran her hands across her face, haphazardly rubbing away the remaining vestiges of her tears. "I — I think I could be. And do you know what? It scares the _hell_ out of me. When you gave me those flowers — I didn't know whether to thank the Prophets or turn tail and run." She gave Odo a pleading, questioning stare. "Odo — are you really in love with me? Are you sure? I mean, now that you're human, I know it's confusing —"

"Being _human_ has nothing to do with it, Nerys. I've been in love with you for _years_."

Odo took a hesitant step closer, a step that she echoed. Their fingertips stretched out across the distance that separated them until they finally touched. "How long?" Kira whispered. "How long have you known?" 

"Since the day you told me you were in love with Bareil." 

Kira's eyes met Odo's in a look of dismayed comprehension. "Oh, Odo, I —" Shaking her head, she took the final step to bridge the gap between their bodies, and Odo let his arms close around her with a cross between a gasp and a sigh. Kira rubbed her face tiredly against his shoulder.

"Wonderful," she commented. "A Bajoran ex-terrorist, and a human-once-changeling agnostic. Who says the Prophets don't have a sense of humor?" Forcing a laugh, Kira slid her hand along Odo's cheek to grasp his left ear teasingly in her hand. Smiling a little, Odo reached up and did the same to her, unprepared for the shock that ran through his entire being. Kira stared at him, astounded, her gaze electrified in turn.

"Sweet Prophets," she whispered. "Odo —" 

"Nerys — "He could feel the passion rising inside him like a phaser set on overload. Kira's hands were insistent on his face, dragging it down to where her mouth could hungrily devour his.

_"E'tienta pagh_." She whispered the words steeped in centuries of Bajoran legend. _You are my soul_.

The bed was only a few feet behind Kira, and somehow Odo managed to get her there before they became hopelessly lost in the tangle of each other's arms. But it was a very near thing. 

 

* * *

Jadzia Dax hurried back into Quark's, hand clutching at her precariously balanced headdress as she surveyed the assembled patrons, looking for Odo and Kira. Neither being present, she headed toward the stairs, only to be stopped by Quark, glancing up from his place behind the bar. 

"They're gone," he announced. "They've been gone for almost two hours now." 

Dax sighed in disappointment, and took a seat at the bar. Why she thought that either Kira or Odo would go so far as to book the holosuite for additional time she wasn't sure, but hope sprang eternal — she really enjoyed her Camelot holosuite program. Of course, matters still might be salvageable ... "Quark, is there a holosuite available now by any chance?" 

"There might be." Quark's eyes brightened at the whisper of potential profit. "Would you like me to check? I can go ahead and make you a tentative reservation for the next two hours — non-refundable, of course." 

"Hold on a minute." Dax reached into her dress to activate her combadge. "Dax to Kira." 

The silence that greeted her grew deafening. "Dax to Kira. Kira, come in, please." When the silence continued, Dax inquired, "Computer! Location of —"

"Kira to Dax." The words that crackled through her combadge sounded strangely out-of-breath. 

"Kira, I'm sorry the thing in Ops took me so long — Quark says we can still have a holosuite, though — are you interested?" 

"I kind of — got into — something else." 

Kira _was_ gasping. Dax frowned.

"Nerys, are you all right? You sound out of breath." 

"I'm fine. Just — busy. Kira out." 

"What on earth ...?" Dax bit on her lower lip thoughtfully, a curious frown creasing her smooth brow. She puzzled the matter for a moment, then tapped her combadge again. "Computer — location of Major Kira." 

"Major Kira is in Security Chief Odo's quarters." 

Quark, eavesdropping behind the bar, looked up sharply, mouth hanging open. Dax stared at him, her face breaking into an amazed and delighted smile. "Quark ... I think that Odo and Kira ..."

"No!" Quark swore vigorously in Ferengi. "Dammit, I'm going to lose my shirt!!" 

"What? Don't tell me you have bets running with people other than me!" 

"Do you know how much money I have riding on this? I thought I had the inside track after Shakaar showed up and the Major got involved with him!" 

"You mean you've been betting against Odo and Kira ever since — who with besides me?" 

"Everybody! Bashir, O'Brien, Rom, Morn —"

"Morn?" 

"Odo's the sentimental favorite. I figured I'd make a killing!" 

"That'll teach you to discount sentiment." Dax grinned in pleased satisfaction. 

"All I know is, I'm not paying anybody until I see some _proof_."

"Well, why don't we look?" Dax's eyes danced with mischief.

"What do you mean?" Quark asked suspiciously.

"Don't tell me you haven't gotten hold of a level seven security code." 

"What if I have?" The light of curiosity was being born in the Ferengi's eyes.

In unison, they both turned slowly to stare at Quark's computer console. Quick as a razor-cat, Dax zipped behind the bar, and they began to take turns tapping in codes and commands. Finally, they both stood back and stared for a moment at the screen they had activated, before Dax held out her hand.

"Pay up." 

Quark, eyes never wavering from the viewscreen, dropped several strips of latinum into the Trill's hand. Dax reached out and deactivated the console.

"Hey!" 

"I think we've seen enough for proof, don't you?" 

"I suppose," Quark grumbled, though not too loudly. After all, he had memorized every sequence Dax had keyed in, and it shouldn't be too hard to replicate them.

Quark returned grumbling to polishing glasses, while Dax left for her own quarters. At the first computer terminal she came to, she bumped Quark out of the system, changed her access codes, and, after a little thought, put in a delighted call to Captain Sisko.

It seemed she owed him her thanks for that well-timed summons to Ops. 

 

* * *

"What time is it?" Kira whispered in the darkness. Odo, his hand making lazy trails on her breasts and belly, sighed and nuzzled against the side of her neck.

"I have no idea," he murmured. "Does it matter?" 

"Not as long as we don't miss Sisko's senior staff meeting in the morning." Kira kissed the hollow of Odo's throat, her tongue lingering against his skin. She let out a throaty sigh as he entered her once again, his body moving against hers with the ease of recently acquired familiarity. Kira moaned and let her arms and legs twine around him like a vine around a trellis, riding a gentle wave of passion until she reached a shuddering climax and felt her lover do the same, warm wetness exploding inside her, then trickling out to drench the skin between her thighs. _How many times can human males have sex in one night?_ she wondered idly, and decided that she was likely to find out, and that the number might prove higher than she imagined. The end did not yet seem to be in sight.

"Odo," she said softly, "did you know our _paghs_ linked?" 

"Is that what it was?" Odo rolled over onto his back, pulling Kira with him, snugly wrapped in his arms. "I never believed I had a _pagh_."

"Do you now?" Kira traced the curve of his left ear with a gentle fingertip. 

"I suppose I have to." Odo smiled a little, turning his head to brush his lips against the caressing digit. "The thing is, what does it mean?" 

"It means we belong together," Kira said solemnly, and not entirely happily. Odo caught the hesitation, and turned so they were lying facing each other, and he could look into her eyes. 

"That bothers you." 

"It just feels a little arbitrary." Kira managed a wry smile. "At least the Prophets don't want me to sculpt any more birds." 

"Ah." Odo reached out, stroking back the hair from Kira's forehead. "I'll try not to let it be too much of an imposition." His next words came with difficulty. "Just — just try to love me, if you think you can." 

Kira reached out, caressing Odo's taut face until he could feel the lines of strain ebbing reluctantly. "I don't think I can help it," she assured him. She then let out a shocked little laugh, her eyes widening. "Oh, Prophets ..."

"What is it?" 

"The legends about _tienju-pagh_ \- the joining of souls — say that once it happens, the couple will want to make love — constantly — for 'a cycle of three moons'." 

"How long is that?" Odo asked curiously, happy to be diverted from the worries and doubts that continued to haunt him. 

"Depends on which moons we're talking here. Could be a few days — could be a week — could be a month." 

"Is this a problem?" Odo chuckled. "Provided it doesn't kill me." 

Kira laughed in turn. "Provided I'm able to walk, you mean. We may just have a hard time concentrating on our jobs, that's all. Right now —" Kira paused, before saying the next words in a strong, oddly determined voice, "right now, all I want to do is be with you." 

"I can live with that." _Forever and ever._ Odo ran his hands down Kira's back, savoring the feel of her skin with long, sensuous strokes, losing himself in the sensation. "For so long all I _had_ was my job — I suppose I don't mind letting it take second place for once. Ferreting out smugglers ... tracking down assassins ... churning out reports for Federation bureaucrats ... being constantly on the lookout for changeling infiltrators ..." 

Odo stopped, frozen in place, suddenly fixated on the rich scent of Kira's, and he supposed his own, bodily secretions filling his nostrils. His mind ran back over the feel of Kira's body as it had responded to his, the countless small sensations, the tiny changes, the subtle little things that even the most skilled changeling could never hope to reproduce, with their disdain for the solids and their dislike of taking physical form. And he thought of Aroya, and her strangely objective, antiseptic approach to love-making. 

"Aroya," he whispered, "Chalan Aroya ..."

"Your other girlfriend?" Kira teased. "What about her? Do I need to push her out an airlock or something?" 

"Maybe." Odo sat up abruptly, staring down at Kira with an unfathomable expression. 

"Odo ... what is it?" Kira pulled herself up beside him, troubled eyes fixed on her new lover's face. 

"Aroya," Odo whispered. "She's a changeling." 

" _What?_ " Kira exclaimed. "How do you know?" 

"At least she's not a Bajoran." Odo scrambled from the bed, heading determinedly toward the closet and pulling out his uniform. "When I — when we — Nerys, she doesn't smell right." 

"She doesn't _smell_ right?" Kira propped her back against the bed's solitary pillow, staring at Odo doubtfully. "What do you mean, she doesn't smell right?" 

"When we had sex, she smelled like perfume — and that's all. No scent of her own. She _felt_ different, too — nothing overt, it was subtle, but something no one would miss if they had a — a basis for comparison. Only I didn't have one. I just figured I hadn't been any good. Then, later, when I found out that she'd drugged me —"

"You had sex with Chalan Aroya?" 

Odo looked at Kira, surprised. "I thought that I told you." 

"Well, you hinted — I wasn't sure." Toying with the possibility of jealousy and rejecting it, Kira instead considered the problem carefully. "Odo, I don't think a bad sexual experience is grounds to drag someone out of bed and give a her a blood test." 

Odo, already halfway into his trousers, froze and stared at her. "What do you mean?" 

"I mean that — well, I think you need a little more evidence than something you experienced when you were — well, in a less than objective state. What do you mean, she drugged you?" 

"According to Dr. Bashir, one of the drinks I was given last night contained an illegal aphrodisiac." Odo gave a grim chuckle. "When he told me that, at first I just thought she was trying to set me up to overlook some smuggling operation. Trying to get something she could hold over me as head of station security." 

"Which could still be the answer," Kira observed. "I'm sorry, Odo, I trust your investigator's instincts, but I think you need to think about this one some more before you act." 

"Well, that's the problem." Odo removed his trousers and put them back in the closet carefully. 

"What is?" Kira snuggled back down into the bed, involuntarily holding out her arms as Odo approached her.

"I'm not sure if I _can_ think right now." He eased himself down along beside Kira, sighing as her arms closed around him. Even while some dim portion of his brain assured him that he must be exhausted, and that he would kill himself if he kept at it, Kira's parted thighs breathed another, more powerful message, one to which he eagerly responded. 

"That's not a problem," Kira assured him tenderly.

"No?" He began to move against her, within her, watching as her breathing deepened and her eyelashes fluttered to rest against her cheeks.

"No," Kira whispered. "It's a blessing." 

 

* * *

As things turned out, Odo and Kira were less than ten minutes late to their meeting the next morning, and only a little disheveled. Captain Sisko, amazingly enough, failed to give either one of them the stern look and sarcastic admonishment, "So glad that you could join us," that he usually reserved for late-comers, instead greeting them with a nod and an odd little smile. Kira, puzzled and a little ill at ease, slid into her seat next to Odo — not the wisest choice, she realized, as her fingers itched to touch him. She glanced around the table to find Dax watching her with a questioning smile, and the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. To underline the truth of Kira's suspicions, Dax nodded to Odo as well, before letting her eyes dance quizzically from one face to another. 

It was fortunate that the staff meeting was largely routine, as Kira could give it no more than half her attention. Her eyes kept drifting to the man at her side, taking in the lines of his new face — _if he really thinks that his face makes a difference to me, I think I'll tell him to change it back_ \- and noting with amused dismay the lipstick mark she had somehow managed to leave on the side of his neck. _For hundreds of years they've claimed to come up with lipstick that won't smear and won't rub off, and it never does_ — _not until you kiss someone no one else knows you've been kissing._

Kira caught Chief Miles O'Brien studying her curiously, and managed a friendly smile. Ever since she had been invited — 'compelled' was the word that usually came to mind — to live with the operations chief and his wife while she had been pregnant with their infant son, O'Brien had taken a brotherly interest in Kira's life that sometimes got on her nerves. Still, there was a part of her that had secretly enjoyed the O'Briens' attentions and their warm family life — they had really seen to it that she felt like a part of them. Not that baby Kyoshi hadn't helped with that, too ... As the meeting broke up and Kira wondered how she could avoid answering questions from Dax, O'Brien wandered over and asked, "Nerys, are we still on for tonight?" 

"Tonight?" Kira stared at him, drawing a blank. She could only really think of Odo, lingering near the door, waiting for her as he also kept a wary eye on Dax, still caught up in conversation with Sisko.

"You were coming over for dinner." O'Brien smiled, masking disappointment at her forgetfulness. "Don't you remember?" 

"I'm sorry, Miles, of course I remember." Kira managed a weak smile, before blurting out, much to her own surprise, "Miles, is it all right if I bring someone with me?" 

"Someone with you?" O'Brien looked surprised, but not displeased. He gave her a sly grin. "You mean like a date?" 

"Well ... I ... yes." 

"That'll be just fine. So, when does Shakaar get here?" 

"Edon?" Kira stared at O'Brien, bewildered. "Oh! No! He and I — we broke up. Didn't Keiko tell you? I'm almost sure I mentioned it to her ..." 

"No!" O'Brien gave her a look of honest commiseration. "Well, I dare say he's not good enough for you, anyway. Who's the lucky fellow?" 

"Lucky fellow?" 

"Who are you bringing tonight?" 

"Oh!" Kira managed a weak smile. "It's ... it's Odo." 

"You don't say!" O'Brien's face beamed with genuine delight. "By all means, bring along the constable — it will give me someone to talk to while you and Keiko fuss over the baby. I think I have a few new books he'd like to read." 

"More detective stories?" Kira asked, smiling. At some point during the night when Odo had been in the bathroom, Kira had passed the time by activating the dataPADD placed in meticulous alignment on the small table beside Odo's bed, to discover some sort of novel about a character named Mike Hammer. She had barely had time to investigate it before Odo had returned and ...

Kira held her hand to her forehead, suddenly feeling weak in the knees. She glanced over at the doorway, to find Odo watching her in turn. Kira swayed a little, and O'Brien caught her by the shoulder, his hazel eyes anxious.

"Steady there! Are you all right?" 

Kira realized, dismayed, that her movement had been broad enough to draw not only O'Brien's concerned response, but to catch the attention of Sisko and Dax as well. That Odo would notice wasn't even a question — he was there at her side in the space of a heartbeat, not touching her, but hovering close at hand should she need him. 

"Major, what is it?" Sisko crossed the room in long strides, an intensely curious Dax riding his heels. "Would you like me to call Dr. Bashir?" 

"No! — No, I'm fine. I just didn't get enough sleep last night, that's all." Kira studiously avoided meeting Dax's eyes. 

"You ought to take it a little easier, Major — you did just get over having a baby, you know." This observation came from O'Brien, still with a supporting hand on Kira's shoulder. 

Sisko nodded decisively. "You've been running yourself pretty ragged, Major, and you don't seem to haven't gotten enough rest while you were on leave." 

"Captain, I'm fine. I just —"

"Major, I'm relieving you of duty for the rest of the day. I want you to go back to your quarters and _rest_. That's an order," he finished as Kira opened her mouth to protest. "Dax, will you escort Major Kira back to her quarters and make sure that she stays there?" 

"Certainly, Captain," Dax announced, her eyes dancing.

Kira gave Odo one final despairing glance and bowed to the inevitable, sulkily accompanying Dax from the briefing room. She could almost feel the heat from her lover's body as he followed close behind them, before he turned to stride in the direction of the Security Office once they reached the Promenade — Kira paused there for a moment, watching him go.

"So," Dax asked, once they finally made it to the turbolift, "are you going to tell me what kept you awake all night, or are you going to let me guess? Either way, I think I'm going to have fun." 

Kira glanced around to make sure there was no one to overhear her before saying tersely, "Fine. Odo and I did it. Are you satisfied?" 

"No! I want details!" Dax protested as the door of the lift opened in front of them. She bundled Kira on ahead of her, announcing, "Habitat Ring. Level Eleven." Her bright eyes returned inexorably to Kira's face. "What happened after I left you two last night?" 

"We —" Kira paused, wondering how to best phrase what she had to say. Finally she whispered, "We went for a walk in the garden. And Odo told me something he's been keeping from me for a long time." 

Dax sighed in contentment. "He finally told you? I'm so glad!" 

"What did you know about it?" Kira asked suspiciously, just as the turbolift opened onto the Habitat Ring. She scowled as, Dax hard on her heels, she headed for her quarters. 

"Remember my _zhian'tara_? Curzon came back with a few more memories than he left me with." 

Kira glared at Dax indignantly before keying in her lockcode. "So why didn't you say something?" 

"Anything you learn about someone providing an environment for one of your past Trill hosts during your _zhian'tara_ is confidential, Nerys. Surely you can see that." 

"I suppose," Kira admitted grudgingly. She preceded Dax into her darkened quarters, and then turned to face her. "Anyway, you've got me here — were you planning to stay and baby-sit?" 

"Maybe." Dax grinned at her. "It depends. Are you going to tell me what's wrong with you?" 

"What do you mean what's wrong with me?" Kira's hand flew to her neck where she felt quite sure a number of love-bites were clearly in evidence.

"Not those." Dax snorted. "Your face is white, and you're shaking. Did you really just go at it all night to get like this?" 

Kira paused in thought for several moments before answering, and Dax, sensing that something important was going on, allowed her friend the time she needed to think. Finally Kira replied, "Dax, you're interested in Bajoran 'folklore', as you call it — have you ever heard of the _tienju-pagh_?"

"' _Tienju-pagh_ — that means "joined souls', doesn't it?" 

Kira nodded. "It's an ancient Bajoran belief that, every so often, two people will come together who were meant by the Prophets to be that way. Once they find each other, should they part it would have dire consequences, not only for the couple involved, but for everyone else around them. It's a custom when you make love with someone for the first time, you're supposed to cup each other's ear in your hands — you know the way, you've seen the vedeks do it — and if you're _tienju-pagh_ , you'll feel it in every cell of your body. Most people still do it, even though it's considered just a myth — almost like a joke — only last night, with Odo ..." 

"You felt it happen?" Dax, who had lived long enough to know that almost every myth had solid roots, was completely understanding.

"Yes." Kira went to seat herself on the couch, drawing her knees up under her chin and hugging them to her chest. Dax dropped into a nearby chair, studying her friend curiously.

"I'm not sure I understand," Dax said finally. "Are you saying that you're in love?" 

"I'm saying that — it doesn't matter if I'm in love or not." 

Faced with the bleak resolution in Kira's eyes, Jadzia Dax, perhaps for the first time since she had been 'joined', found herself at an absolute loss for words. 

 

* * *

Odo tried to keep himself occupied in Security by running a variety of background checks on Chalan Aroya, all of which checked out perfectly. There were no glitches, no discrepancies, no omissions from the woman's past — _perhaps Kira's right_ , Odo thought tiredly, the loss of sleep beginning to take its toll. Still, there was an unpleasant task that needed to be performed — he tapped away at his computer console, keying in the sequences that would connect him with the Celestial Cafe. Aroya herself answered the comm', her thin face evidencing surprise at the sight of him.

"Odo? What — is that you?" 

Odo belatedly remembered his new face, which had engendered a surprising lack of comment thus far. He considered an explanation, but settled for a simple, Yes." 

For the briefest of instants, Aroya seemed somehow — _dismayed?_ — by the transformation, but masked her feelings quickly with a sunny smile. "I was hoping you'd call. I haven't had a chance to tell you how much I enjoyed dinner night before last." Her voice dipped and lingered over the word 'dinner', while she fluttered her eyelashes seductively.

Odo was never one to put off biting the bullet. "I'm afraid that I have to cancel our plans for this evening. Something came up." _And has been doing so_ ,he thought dryly, _every time the thought of Nerys has passed through my mind._

"Oh ... I'm sorry to hear that." Aroya looked clearly disappointed. "But you mean postpone, not cancel, don't you?" 

Odo took a deep breath. "Aroya, you're a very lovely woman ... but no. I mean cancel." 

"I see. Very well." Aroya's face suddenly seemed to be all points and angles as her smile vanished. "Well, thank you for calling." 

"Aroya —"

The com-screen went blank. 

Odo sighed, rubbing his temples tiredly. He supposed he could have lied, dissembled, but he had never been good at it. It was just as well that she knew now. He wanted nothing more to do with her, especially since he suspected her of having ulterior motives. Odo reached down and tapped his combadge. 

"Odo to Kira." 

"Odo?" The reply was a little fuzzy, sleepy but prompt. "Where are you?" 

"Security." 

"Can you come here? To my quarters?" 

"I'll be right there." Odo closed down all the work on his terminal, and headed for the Promenade. He managed to maintain a dignified pace to reach the turbolift, but he almost ran the necessary steps to Kira's quarters once he reached Level Eleven of the Habitat Ring. Kira answered the doorcom instantly, drawing Odo in and activating the lockcode behind him. She caught him tightly in her arms, her mouth opening effortlessly to his as Odo began to kiss her.

"Prophets, I've missed you," he whispered, even while he realized how ridiculous it was. They had only been apart a matter of a few hours. 

"I've missed you, too." Kira, thankfully, found no absurdity in his words. "Now come to bed." 

_Tienju-pagh_ certainly demanded a lot of a person's physical resources, but at least this time, after a couple of orgasms that had him bellowing at the top of his lungs in ecstasy, Odo was able to fall into a restless doze, still entwined in Kira's arms. Their bodies apparently more able than their minds, Odo drifted back to consciousness with his engorged member already sliding into Kira's welcoming depths while she whimpered softly, her arms coiling around him hungrily even while she seemed to sleep. 

"Prophets, I wonder if anyone's ever died from this," Odo mused aloud. Kira chuckled a little, opening her eyes a scant slit and planting a sleepy kiss in the hollow of Odo's throat. 

"Not yet," she purred, before letting out a sudden, sharp gasp as her climax overtook her. Odo spent himself as well, and collapsed gratefully into Kira's arms.

"Do you think we'll get some sleep tonight?" Odo asked, none too hopefully. Kira laughed, giving him a slow, lingering kiss before replying:

"I guarantee it, even if we have to call Bashir for a sedative. But first there's dinner at the O'Briens' to get through." 

"Oh? You're having dinner out?" Odo tried to force back the tiny, hurt feeling of being excluded. "I have some work I need to get done in my office —" 

"You're coming to dinner with me," Kira told him, not fooled for a minute. "Miles and Keiko are expecting both of us in —" she checked the bedside chronometer "— forty-five minutes. I think we need to take a shower first — come on." She slipped from Odo's arms and climbed out of bed, reaching out her hand to draw him after her. Odo followed her curiously.

"Together?" he wondered.

"The way we're going, we'll probably end up that way anyway. Might as well save time where we can." 

Somehow they managed to finish their shower without having sex more than once — in light of recent events, this seemed like a major accomplishment. They even managed to leave enough time to go by Odo's quarters so he could change into civvies — a nicety upon which Kira insisted.

"You're not going there with me as my coworker, you're going with me because we're together. And I want us to look like that." Kira, beautiful in the deep rust tunic and leggings that, had she but realized it, would always remind Odo of the horrible morning when she told him she was involved with Shakaar, surveyed Odo's limited wardrobe with a small frown of concentration. She finally made him pull on a gray silk tunic with black trousers, the tunic formerly one of Dr. Bashir's who swore it didn't fit him properly anymore, and she vowed to drag Odo out shopping the next day, even if they had to get Garak out of his holding cell to do it. Odo submitted to her fussing with surprisingly good grace — _so this is what it's like_ , he thought with a stab of contentment. _This is being part of a couple._

Other aspects of being a couple soon presented themselves as they arrived at the O'Brien family's quarters. Keiko, already briefed by the Chief, greeted Odo without surprise, but with boundless curiosity threatening to leap out of her black eyes. She then abducted Kira into the baby's room, where little Kyoshi was sleeping peacefully through it all. Miles O'Brien clapped Odo heartily on the shoulder, and escorted him into the main living area, offering him a seat.

"Good to have you here, Constable. Lord knows how long those two will stay at it in there." O'Brien smiled broadly — not a particularly talkative man by nature, he was already reaching the limits of his ability to make small-talk. Fortunately, little Molly O'Brien had no trouble coming up with a conversational ice-breaker. 

The small girl approached Odo, stared at him with solemn dark eyes, and asked, "Are you Aunt Nerys' new boyfriend?" The dark eyes narrowed skeptically. "You're not pretty like her last boyfriend." 

"Molly!" O'Brien shushed his daughter hastily, even while he showed a guarded interest in hearing an answer to the query. 

"I —" Odo was completely taken aback by the childish candor. Avoiding the question, he responded finally to the comment, "I don't think that there are very many people pretty enough for your Aunt Nerys." 

The critique continued. "Daddy says you're Odo, but you don't look like Odo. Odo's all smooth. You look old." 

"Molly!!" This time the chief's admonition had more bite. Odo, meanwhile, was beginning to understand how a criminal felt when getting the third degree. The little girl subsided a bit, before asking,

"Can you change into a pony?" 

"No," Odo said, after a short, sad pause. "Not anymore." 

Clearly dissatisfied with this response, Molly retreated to her father's side while O'Brien tried to make amends. "Kids!" he exclaimed, in a falsely hearty voice. "You never know what'll come out their mouths." 

"Kyoshi threw up on Mommy," Molly added helpfully. Thankfully, before matters could get any worse, Kira and Keiko re-entered the room, Kira with baby Kyoshi in her arms.

"Such a beautiful boy," Kira cooed gently. She glanced up from the bundle she carried, her eyes finding Odo's and crinkling as she smiled. "Odo, have you had a chance to meet my hazardous duty here?" 

"Only briefly." Odo smiled in return as Kira sat closely beside him on the sofa, so he could look down easily into the baby's sleepy face. Kyoshi looked remarkably like any number of other human and humanoid babies Odo had seen in the past, but some sort of enthusiastic response seemed to be called for, so he added, "He's very handsome. I can't tell which one of you he looks like, though." It seemed like a safe enough comment.

Apparently it was. "I think he looks like Miles," Keiko said happily.

"He's the image of his mother," O'Brien stated with contented assurance.

"I think he looks like a baby vole," Molly observed, with a decided lack of enthusiasm. Odo, the perpetual outsider, could pick out that note of exclusion if he heard it played in the middle of a symphony. He pretended to give the baby a closer look, and actually, he could see Molly's point in referring to the Cardassian rodents' pink and initially hairless offspring.

"You know, Molly, you may have something there," Odo observed solemnly. The other three adults smothered their smiles as Molly shot across the room to sit at Odo's other side, bright eyes hopeful. "He does have a very long nose." 

Molly looked at the baby, and frowned. "No he doesn't." 

"Oh?" Odo looked again. "I guess you're right. It's certainly nothing like mine." Odo stroked the bridge of the referenced appendage thoughtfully. "Hmm ... vole have such long noses, though ... does he only have three toes on each foot?" 

"No!" Molly giggled at the absurdity. 

"Not three? Five, then?" 

Molly nodded confidently.

"Well, then, he must have whiskers, but I don't see them yet ..." 

"There aren't any!" Molly was enjoying this inept summary.

"So ... why does he look like a vole, I wonder ..." 

"He doesn't!" Molly proclaimed gleefully. 

"He doesn't?" Odo gave her an aggrieved stare. "But you said he did." 

"I lied!" Molly chortled, before looking startled at her own confession, and suddenly fearful. "Do you 'rest people that lie?" 

"Arrest them? Molly, if I arrested everyone on this station whenever they told a lie, the whole station would be have to be turned into holding cells." 

The little girl wasn't quite sure she understood that truthful response, but apparently decided that she liked it anyway. "He's a good boyfriend, Aunt Nerys," she announced. "If you don't wanna to keep him, can I have him? Even if he's not pretty," she added as an afterthought.

"Tell you what, Molly," Kira said, "you can have the last one. This one I'm going to keep." 

Odo gave Kira a startled, grateful look, while O'Brien and Keiko broke into beaming smiles. Molly, still not put off, sought to clarify with the query, "Forever?" 

Kira paused. Then she affirmed quietly, "Forever." 

Molly sighed and accepted the inevitable. O'Brien exclaimed jovially, "Congratulations! When are you planning the big event?" 

Kira and Odo both stared at him, Odo wondering what on earth the chief was talking about. Kira managed a weak smile and said, "Oh, we haven't set a date yet. It's all been — kind of sudden." 

Seeing the possibility of further awkwardness, Keiko said brightly, "Shall we eat? It's vegetarian, Constable, I hope you don't mind ..." 

"Not at all." Odo wasn't entirely comfortable with the concept of meat, even replicated, and had yet to try any. Fortunately Bajoran cuisine tended to concentrate on vegetable proteins. 

O'Brien, on the other hand, groaned. "You should have seen it, Odo, when Kira was living here. She couldn't stand to eat meat the entire length of her pregnancy, and Keiko doesn't care for it much, either \- I didn't see a decent chop or cutlet or leg o' lamb the entire time! Just tons and tons of tofu!" He shook his head. "Not that Keiko can't do perfectly lovely things with tofu, mind — well, let's get at it." 

Odo found both the tofu stir-fry and delicate vegetarian spring rolls to be excellent, although he was slightly taken aback by his first encounter with chopsticks. Molly, giggling on his left, was no help, but Kira, seated to his right, was quick to cover his hand with hers, demonstrating the procedure with a gentle intimacy that made his heart swell painfully in his chest. The meal was consumed in a cloud of what was, to Odo, the very new feeling of euphoria, every bite somehow blessed by the existence of the auburn-haired woman at his side. Even while he chatted with O'Brien about Mickey Spillane and Mike Hammer, and debated the merits of P.D. James, Odo was aware of his lover's every movement, her every word. And he was aware of the same sort of unity between O'Brien and Keiko — even while they devoted themselves to their guests, there was a connection, a unity underlying all their actions. A link _._

Miles and Keiko had a link. _And_ , Odo thought, with joy that was almost painful, _so do Nerys and I._

This realization, formulated as they strolled the short distance back to Kira's quarters after dinner, was accompanied by a wave of physical passion so strong that Odo almost staggered. Kira caught at his arm, concerned, before smiling as she saw the look in his eyes.

"We may have to call Julian for that sedative after all." Arriving at her door, she keyed in the lockcode with fingers that shook a little. "But not now. Later." 

"Later," Odo agreed. Then Kira was in his arms, and 'later' became a matter of complete disinterest. 

 

* * *

Towards dawn they finally slept, exhausted, Kira draped across Odo like a blanket. The passion of this second night together seemed deeper, truer than the frantic coupling that had overwhelmed them before ... Even in her sleep Kira clung to Odo possessively, her hands moving occasionally over his body as though to reassure herself that he was still there. Odo, drifting in and out of consciousness, merely gathered her closer and, for the first time since this human transformation had been forced upon him, acknowledged the good in what he had become.

Kira awakened reluctantly in the morning that followed, Odo slumbering quietly in her arms, his head pillowed on her breast. She slipped her fingers into his tawny hair, stroking it gently, smoothing the tousled strands — Odo stirred and yawned, dropping a casual kiss on the first part of Kira's anatomy that his lips chanced to encounter, which happened to be a nipple. Kira chuckled.

"We're going to need to spend some serious time with a dermal regenerator if this keeps up," she observed. 

Odo, with a sleepy smile, laughed softly in turn. "I think we're safe. I can actually conceive of getting out of bed this morning and going to work without feeling ill at the thought." 

"So can I," Kira agreed, then added, "As long as we meet back here tonight." 

"Well, that much is a given." Odo purred the words into Kira's ear, before moving to angle his body so he hovered over her. "Nor did I say I wanted to get out of bed right now." 

"That's true, you didn't." Still, there was a pleasant lack of urgency as they joined in a gentle melding of two bodies perfectly attuned to each other. For once there were no shouts or screams, only sighs as they came together in shuddering waves ... Odo allowed himself a contented murmur as he took a final, brief rest in Kira's arms.

"I still can't believe what you said last night." The words were tremulous with joy.

"What was that?" Kira asked, returning to the interrupted reorganization of his hair.

"That you meant to be with me forever." 

"Well, it's not like I have a choice," Kira observed, smiling. She meant it to be something in the nature of a joke, but Odo stiffened and withdrew from her arms, staring at her with narrowed eyes.

"What do you mean?" 

"Odo, I'm teasing." 

"I still want to know what you meant." Odo's solemn blue eyes were shocked and unconvinced.

"Well ... _tienju-pagh_ hardly leaves you with much of a say in the matter. But I think I would have chosen you anyway, eventually." 

"Eventually." 

"Odo ... please. You're making me nervous." Kira forced a smile. "Besides, there wasn't any _tienju-pagh_ about it when we made love the first time, remember?" 

"Just every time since." 

"We could hardly have kept it up at this rate if there hadn't been." Kira decided that she was getting very tired of Odo's line of investigation. "Odo, it's not like we don't love each other — I imagine there may be people who aren't nearly so lucky." 

"Nerys ..." Odo sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed while looking down at her. "Nerys, are you saying that, even if you didn't care for me, if this _pagh_ thing had happened you would be planning to stay with me? Forever?" 

"If I didn't care for you, I wouldn't have slept with you in the first place." 

"Yes, but let's be hypothetical here. Suppose it was just one of those 'friendly flights' you mentioned. _Would you still be planning to stay with me?_ " 

Once, three years before when Odo had finally closed the case on a certain murdered Bajoran chemist named Vaatrik, Kira had sworn she would never lie to him again. Never before had she regretted that oath the way she did now.

"Well ... yes." 

"Why?" The retort was short, sharp, a ricochet. 

"Well ... I ... it's a religious obligation." 

"'Religious .... _obligation_.'" Odo stared at Kira for a long moment, before getting abruptly to his feet and starting to collect his clothes from the floor. Kira sat up and watched him, wide-eyed, as he began to dress. 

"Odo, it's not that I don't love you —" 

"But you're not _in_ love with me, are you?" 

"I don't know ... maybe. I'm not sure." Kira shook her head in confusion. "It wouldn't matter if I wasn't." Never was there a poorer choice of statements.

"It matters to _me!!_ " The words were raw, a rasping shriek like the tearing of velvet. "I don't want to be your 'religious obligation'! I want you to be with me because you want to be! Not because you think you have to be!" 

"Odo —"Kira forced herself to speak in an even tone. "I do want to be with you. I only meant that — well, I'm a Bajoran. My faith is very important to me. I thought you knew that." 

"Fortunately, some Bajorans are a little more objective! Dr. Mora may not have been the perfect 'father figure', but at least he didn't saddle me with any idiotic religious nonsense!" 

"Dr. Mora is an agnostic!" Kira snapped back, losing her temper in turn. "Do you think any Bajoran believer could have worked the way he did for the Cardassians?" 

"Well, Major, speaking as an agnostic who worked for the Cardassians myself, I really can't say! Funny thing, though — you nearly had me believing!" 

"Believing in what?!" 

"Believing that those damned wormhole entities might be more than they seem. That there might be something to this _tienju-pagh_ of yours other than the flight of the century! Believing in _you_ , Major!" 

Pulling on his boots in two sharp, decisive stamps, Odo whirled and left the room. Seconds later, Kira heard the outer door <swoosh> open and then close behind him. She grimaced at the emotional anguish that slammed into her gut, but shoved the pain aside to hold desperately onto her anger. 

Cardassian-loving agnostic, tearing up her cherished beliefs and throwing them in her face like so many dirty rags — calling the sacred time they had spent in each other's arms no more than 'the flight of the century' — _bastard_ , Kira raged inwardly, _I hate him! I_ _hate him!_

_No,_ an inner voice chided instantly, _you don't hate him._ Kira winced at the words, and tried to resist what she knew would follow — what did follow. _You're in love with him._ Kira finally acknowledged the truth she had denied for so long, even to herself. Yes, she was in love with him.

"Well, too bad," she murmured aloud. "He'll never believe it now." 

Kira was in the shower, resolutely preparing for the day ahead, before she realized that she was crying. 

 

* * *

The day in Ops was thankfully uneventful, and although Kira's reddened eyes didn't pass unnoticed, no one questioned her until after the shift ended. Then Miles O'Brien approached her hesitantly, coming up behind her to rest his hand tentatively on her shoulder. Kira wheeled, looking up, before the hope drained from her face like water.

"Oh ... Chief. What can I do for you?" 

"Are you all right, Nerys?" O'Brien's wide, honest face showed concern.

"Me? I'm fine. Just fine ..." The last 'fine' came out immediately followed by a choked sob. O'Brien, dismayed at the results of his query, let his arms encircle Kira gingerly, making ineffectual, clucking noises.

"There, there, now — ah, don't cry, Nerys. Don't — now come along. You're coming home with me. Keiko will be glad to have you. We'll fix you a nice dinner, you can spend the night in Molly's room if you like — come on —" O'Brien managed to get the sobbing Kira safely out of Ops without drawing too much attention, although a number of eyebrows lifted at the sight. Fortunately Dax was at the other end of the station, and Sisko safely ensconced in his office ... O'Brien finally got Kira to his family's quarters, calling for Keiko as he came through the door.

"What on earth —?"Keiko took Kira into her arms, murmuring soothingly. "Miles, what happened?" 

"No idea," O'Brien said shortly. "She's been like a zombie all day — I've never seen her like this. But Odo's been conspicuous by his absence." O'Brien's tone made it clear that it would not be a pleasant experience for the security chief when he finally reappeared.

"Nerys, what happened?" Keiko stepped back to peer into Kira's face. "Did you and Odo have a fight?" 

Kira nodded wordlessly. She knew that there was no way she could explain the exchange that had passed between her and Odo without both of them being hopelessly misunderstood. Keiko gave a compassionate grimace, and led Kira to where she could seat her gently on the couch. 

"Miles, get Nerys a cup of tea. Nerys, it'll be all right. Odo loves you, you'll work it out." 

_Odo loves you._ Kira shuddered, shaking her head as she held her arms wrapped tightly around her body. She was beginning to suspect that everyone on the station had known this important fact before she had. "I'm not sure that he does anymore. And it's my fault ..."

Unobserved by the preoccupied grown-ups, Molly O'Brien surveyed Kira's distress solemnly. Thinking hard, the little face locked in a furious scowl, before suddenly brightening at some internal revelation. Turning towards the door, Molly exited her family's quarters without being noticed, and headed determinedly for the nearest turbolift. 

 

* * *

Odo, holed up in his office, was having an equally disquieting day.

At first he buried himself in a series of reports — reports to be written, reports to be read, reports to be regarded, reports to be snorted at and ignored. A security duty roster encompassing the next three months was carefully put together. Then he studied the day's criminal activities report, an exercise that brought unwelcome reminders of Kira. Of course, they had to be memories of Kira at her best — laughing at him over a cup of raktajino, reaching out to clutch his hand compassionately in hers — moving beneath him and crying out her passion in the dark. Finally, Odo had had enough. He put his head down in his hands and sighed.

"Mr. Odo?" 

The clear, childish voice caused Odo's head to come up sharply. Molly O'Brien stood looking at him, her dark eyes wide and solemn.

"Molly!" he exclaimed, getting to his feet and coming around his desk. Given a choice between getting down on her level and raising Molly to his, Odo elected to lift the little girl in his arms. "What are you doing here?" He sat her down on the edge of his desk, peering at her anxiously. "Where are your father and mother?" 

"Home." Molly's stare was relentless. "Aunt Nerys is sad." 

"Is she?" Odo was alarmed to find a sudden lump in his throat. "Is she with your mother and father?" 

"Daddy brought her home from work. She was _crying_." Molly's look was frankly accusatory. 

"I see." Odo was appalled to feel moisture gathering in his own eyes. Molly was onto him like a hawk.

"Are you sad, too?" 

"I suppose I am," Odo confessed.

"'Cause of the fight?" 

"Yes." Odo managed a crooked smile. "Because of the fight." 

"Mommy and Daddy fight sometimes," Molly confided.

"Do they?" 

Molly nodded solemnly. "But then they kiss an' make up, an' Daddy says that makes it all better." 

"Do you think your Aunt Nerys and I should kiss and make up?" _If only it were that easy,_ he thought tiredly.

"Yes!" Molly announced. She held out her arms imperiously. Odo helped her down to the floor, to have her reach out and secure his hand in a tight grip. "Come _on!_ "

Just then, Odo's combadge emitted an insistent <beep!>

"Odo here." 

"Odo, this is O'Brien." The chief's voice was frantic. "Molly is missing. She was here in our quarters one minute and —"

"Relax, Chief. She's here with me now. She's fine — she just decided to pay me a visit." 

"Oh, thank God! I'll be right there." 

"No need, Chief. She'd like me to escort her home." 

"Well, then ..." There was an uncomfortable pause at the other end of the comlink. "I don't like to impose —"

"I know Nerys is there, Chief. She doesn't have to see me if she doesn't want to, but tell her I wish she would. We need to talk." 

"All right, I'll tell her, then." O'Brien seemed relieved at Odo's suggestion. "Thanks again, Odo — O'Brien out." 

"Well, then, Miss O'Brien, it's time I took you home." Odo reached behind him to shut down the work on his computer console, and reached down to lift Molly into his arms. "May we walk like this? My legs are longer than yours." 

"All right," Molly conceded. She added wistfully, "Are you _sure_ you can't turn into a pony?" 

"I'm afraid so." Odo nodded regretfully. "But if I ever could turn into a pony again, I would definitely turn into one for you." 

"Promise?" 

"I promise." 

The O'Briens greeted their errant daughter with hugs and admonitions, kisses and promises of retribution. Odo hung silently in the background, his eyes scanning the quarters' main living area until they froze, transfixed, on the face of the woman who stood waiting for him in a doorway at far end of the room. Kira, her eyes wide but no longer tearful, gave him a little nod and gestured that he come to join her. 

After managing a scant nod of greeting to the O'Briens, and a murmured assurance to Molly that he would love to fulfill her request to read her a story at bedtime, Odo crossed the room slowly until he reached Kira's side. Kira nodded in the direction of the bedroom behind her, while saying quietly to her hosts, "We won't be long." 

Closing the door on Chief O'Brien's admonitions to take all the time they needed, Kira and Odo walked slowly toward the center of the room, carefully evaluating places where they might sit. Kira finally positioned herself gingerly on the edge of the bed, while Odo took the single chair that stood beside it.

Before the silence that swelled between them could prove utterly overwhelming, Odo said quietly, "Nerys, I owe you an apology." 

"Oh?" Kira said softly. "I thought I owed you one." 

"I insulted your beliefs and made light of something that's very important to you. That's inexcusable." 

"Well, too bad," Kira said shortly. To Odo's questioning look she added wryly, "I already excused you." 

"Ah — I see." Somewhat at a loss for how to proceed, Odo subsided into an uncomfortable silence.

"I just got so caught up in — in resenting the Prophets telling me what I had to do, that I wasn't taking time to ask myself if it was what I wanted to do. It's like Molly and her keyboard." 

"What?" 

"Molly has this — musical keyboard. She can just sit there and bang on it for hours, she loves it — only now she's taking lessons, and when her mother tells her she has to practice, she'll think of a thousand and one things to distract her. Not because she doesn't love it, but because she really hates being told what to do. I guess I've always hated being told what to do, too." 

"Funny — Shakaar told me you were a good soldier." Odo's voice had a decidedly bitter edge as he spoke the name of Kira's former lover.

"Let's just say I'd had some of the rough edges worked off by the time I joined his resistance cell." 

"I suspected as much." 

Kira glanced up quickly at Odo's wry comment, traces of a smile slowly lighting her face. "You know me so well, don't you?" 

"I like to think so." Odo met Kira's gaze slowly, reluctantly, the pain still evident in his searching blue eyes."" So — being with me is like being forced to practice your music lessons?" 

"No." Kira shook her head. "The idea was, at first — but being with you, that's — well, that's like the music." 

Odo contemplated Kira's words in an ever-deepening silence. Finally he ventured, "I guess this means you'd like to try again. Or at least that you feel you should." 

"Odo —" Kira looked up in the quiet, shuttered face with a sigh. "You may not believe this, but I swear that I've never lied to you since Vaatrik, and I'm not lying to you now. I am — very much in love with you. And I'm sorry that it took me so damned long to see it." 

Odo's cautious smile was not entirely believing. "So my apology is accepted? You want us to try again?" 

"With all my heart." Kira reached out, taking Odo's hand gently in hers. Odo lifted her hand in turn, lightly caressing her fingers with his thumb before raising them briefly to his lips. That accomplished, he closed his eyes with a tired sigh. There was a resignation about him that was sadder than tears.

"I don't care about the truth anymore. I just want to be with you. I'll start going to the Bajoran temple with you, I'll learn the prayers — I'll get my nose fixed. Hell, I'll get ridges any damned place you want them. I'll even get an earring." 

"Odo, I —"

"You're the only Link I have, Nerys. I'll do whatever I have to do in order to keep you." 

Kira got slowly to her feet and moved to where she could stand close at Odo's side, reaching out and drawing his head to rest against her breast. "Odo, remember how you once told me about people always wanting you to change into things? Animals, furniture — that Cardassian neck trick — and how much you hated it?" 

"Yes," Odo said simply. Kira could almost imagine that he was facing such a situation as he spoke, from the bleak hopelessness in his voice. Keeping her tone level, she finished:

"Well, the only thing I want you to be is you." 

"Ah." The noncommittal syllable was little more than a breath. At first Kira wondered despairingly if he had heard a word, but then relaxed as she felt his arm creep up to encircle her. "Then I think I should take you home." He paused. "We have a date to set." 

Kira saw immediately how important it was that she never hesitate. "Yes," she replied. "We do." 

She felt him sag against her ever-so-slightly in relief. "Besides," Odo added. "There's something not quite right about making love on the bed of a five-year-old." 

Kira nearly replied that Shakaar had once said the exact same thing, but decided against it. Honesty was one thing. Stupidity was another. 

 

* * *

For the fiftieth time in only twice as many days, Chalan Aroya cursed the difficulty of her assignment. 

At first it had seemed easy, to distract the former changeling so obviously beset by a welter of conflicting hormones. His seduction had proved no great difficulty, and she at first had been smug with the ease of her success. 

However, as the buzz began around the space station about Security Chief Odo's and Major Kira Nerys' wedding, she did not feel so sanguine. In fact, she was livid with the knowledge of her seeming blunder — livid, and terrified.

The ones who had given her this assignment did not take kindly to failure.

Fortunately, certain options still remained open to her, ones that did not require the disgusting use of her body for such unspeakable intimacies. Since the ceremony was scheduled to take place in the Bajoran temple, that made it a public event. And after all, she was a part of the public. 

Gathering the resources she needed for her assault proved no problem — she had been generously endowed with anything she might need to help guarantee her success. And there were always individuals on the station who would do anything one might require of them if the number of latinum strips was right.

Like a golden spider, Chalan Aroya began to spin her web. 

* * *

"Nerys, are you absolutely sure about this?" 

Kira sighed. It was a question she had been hearing a lot since she had announced her intention to marry Odo — always from Odo himself. She finished tidying her uniform away into her closet, and turned to face her anxious lover with a smile.

"Yes," she said simply. "I wouldn't marry you if I weren't sure. I am absolutely, completely, totally sure." 

"So many couples on Bajor never bother to get married, and they're perfectly happy. Perhaps we should just —"

"Odo, is it my cold feet you're worried about or yours? A lot of couples don't bother to get married because the ceremony takes four hours! Do you just not want to take the time?" 

"Of course I do!" Odo protested. "I just want you to be sure." 

"Odo." Kira crossed the room to take his hands in hers. "I'm sure. I love you, I want to marry you. And I've gotten myself a pair of extremely comfortable shoes for the ceremony. I suggest you do the same." 

"I already have," Odo confessed with a little smile. Allowing himself to relax, he drew Kira gently into his arms and began to kiss her, while she responded with an appreciative purr.

"What about you?" Kira asked curiously. "Any last minute jitters?" 

"Only the kind you get when you can't believe something is really happening. I am very much looking forward to this time tomorrow, when you'll finally be my wife." 

"Forever," Kira assured him softly, pressing her lips back to his. She chuckled as Odo lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed.

"I fail to see what's funny," Odo commented as he lowered her against the sheets. Kira continued to laugh softly, even while she unfastened her robe, letting it fall open to expose her naked body.

"I just thought you might want to take the night off — give tomorrow a tinge of novelty." 

"I'm afraid to," Odo replied solemnly, shucking off his own robe and tossing it across the foot of the bed. To Kira's questioning look he added, "I'm too new at all this. I might forget how it's done." 

Kira's soft chuckles were replaced by full-fledged guffaws. Odo somehow found it ridiculously gratifying that Kira laughed until tears came to her eyes at the notion he might forget how to make love to her. It seemed like a very good omen.

"Yeah, and a razor cat will forget how to eat _grinji._ Tell me another." 

"I love you." 

"Well, that I believe. I love you, too." 

Odo began kissing her all over her face and shoulders, before letting his mouth slide lower to her breasts. One erect nipple after the other was given the most careful attention ... Kira sighed as he finally entered her, letting out a groan of satisfaction. 

"Oh, that's so good. I can't think when you do that. Yes, there — harder — oh, yes —" 

Odo couldn't really think either, caught up in the acute rapture of feeling Kira's body pressed tightly to his, enveloping him and caressing him with her wet warmth. Her fingers dug tightly into his shoulders as she rode the waves of pleasure that finally cumulated in her orgasm, and encouraged him to follow her into bliss. He jumped a little, startled, as Kira displayed the extent of her enjoyment with a full-throated shriek. His lover had gotten increasingly noisier as their sexual relationship had progressed, as well as more humorous and inventive. It was the tiniest bit unnerving, especially considering her periodic promises that she was saving the best for their wedding night. Odo wondered if he would survive it.

For the time being, he contented himself with a happy groan as his own release peaked and began to ebb. Kira began kissing him enthusiastically, murmuring, "Tomorrow night. Just you wait. I have got _such_ plans for you." 

"I'm breathless with anticipation," Odo assured her solemnly. Kira chuckled and snuggled against him, falling asleep with the ease of someone who spent many years having to take her rest whenever and however she could. Odo, on the other hand, was well on his way to being a complete insomniac — having required as little as an hour's worth of regeneration a night when he was a changeling, he resented the time his human body seemed to want devoted to repose, and tended to ignore it when he could. Now he lay awake in the dark, listening to the soft sound of Kira's breathing, and wondered for the umpteenth time if he was being a fool.

Kira said that she was in love with him. She acted like she was. But Odo knew better than anyone how good a liar Kira Nerys could be — at least to someone who wanted desperately to believe her. 

_The way I want to believe in her now._

Odo waited until he was sure that Kira was sound asleep before disentangling himself cautiously from her embrace. Then, throwing on pants, boots, and a tunic he headed out the door — Kira's quarters, tonight — he made his way to the main Promenade, to the central hub that was Quark's.

Although never in a million years would he admit it to the proprietor, Odo had developed an odd attachment to the seamy establishment, simply because it was so alive, so weirdly chaotic. Lover of order that he was, with attaining humanity Odo had gained an odd attraction for chaos, for the profusion of experiences that this solid life had to offer.

_Perhaps because it's so comparatively brief,_ he mused as he headed into the brightly lit main area. He stepped up to the bar, and, after some thought, ordered a glass of tonic water. Lieutenant Dax had introduced him to the human beverage, and he found it pleasant, with its sharp tang and resolute lack of sweetness. 

"No hangover tomorrow, ey, Odo?" Quark observed, pouring the drink and adding a twist of lime. 

"Certainly not," Odo sniffed, tossing a slip of latinum on the bar. "I can't imagine what could be viler than getting drunk the night before your own wedding." 

"Getting drunk right after your own wedding," Quark assured him solemnly. Odo grimaced a little as he acknowledged the validity of Quark's statement. "So," the Ferengi continued in a drawling voice, "you're really going to marry her." 

"That's right." Odo sipped cautiously at his drink, wondering what was going to come next.

"She really does love you after all," Quark added with affected casualness. "You're a lucky man." 

"Yes," Odo agreed shortly, unwillingly. A small bubble of panic threatened to burst in his chest.

"You know, I wondered at first why someone like Major Kira would want to marry someone like you — no offense, mind! Then I happened to overhear the oddest thing in that booth right over there." Quark pointed to the other side of the bar, where a corner booth was almost obscured by its activated privacy screen.

"'Happened to hear'?" Odo asked skeptically. 

"I'm a Ferengi," Quark said loftily, looking hurt at the inference. "I have sensitive ears." 

"Hmph." 

"Anyway, Major Kira was sitting in that booth with Lieutenant Dax, and do you know what she actually did?" 

"What?" Odo knew that he shouldn't let this conversation go any further, but the temptation was too great.

"She was talking about your wedding, and she started to cry." 

Odo stared at the barkeep, stricken.

"But the damnedest thing is why she was crying." Quark polished another glass with careful nonchalance. "She was saying how much she loved you — and how afraid she was that you would never trust her enough to really believe it. Funny the notions these fee-males can get into their heads, don't you think?" 

"Yes," Odo whispered, somehow squeezing out the word past the lump in his throat. 

"Oh, that reminds me!" Quark did a fairly poor job of feigning that this wasn't something he'd had planned all along. "Dax is sitting in a booth in the back — she said to tell you to drop by and say hello should you happen to come in." 

"Thank you, Quark." There was more in those words than gratitude at receiving the message from Dax. Odo started to turn from the bar, and then added as if it were an aside, "Oh, Quark, by the way — at the wedding tomorrow —" 

"Did you change your mind about the holographic arch and lovebirds? Very popular!" 

"No, I didn't. No arch, no lovebirds. But it seems that human males have this — tradition — of having someone stand up with them at their weddings — best man, they call it. I hadn't given it any thought, since the wedding is Bajoran, but I suppose it's something I should do — I hardly want to wake anyone at this hour just to ask them, so I was wondering if — you might consider doing it. And no, there's no latinum in it for you." 

"We-ell, the bar is closed that time of day — I guess it would be good for business to be seen right up there with law enforcement — sure. I can do it." Tiny smiles quirked the corners of both Odo's and Quark's mouths in acknowledgment that the form of their rivalry had been somewhat preserved. As an afterthought, Quark added, "Do I have to do anything? Besides stand there?" 

"You can hand me the charm that goes on Nerys' earring. I'll wait and give it to you there — I don't think you could sell it for a big enough profit to make it worth your while, but I never know with you, Quark." Collecting his tonic water, Odo went off in search of Dax. 

And found her — though not alone. Crowded around a couple of tables were Dax, Sisko, Bashir, both adult O'Briens, Worf, Jake, Morn, Rom, and a fairly large group of assorted Security Personnel, both Starfleet and Bajoran, along with one other smiling figure on whom Odo fixed his gaze with unmitigated shock. The group bellowed a lusty "Surprise!" as Odo slowly approached — 

"Dr. Mora —?"

The Bajoran scientist got to his feet, smiling as he did so. "Since you were so kind as to invite me to tomorrow's festivities, I thought I would come in a bit early — and then Lieutenant Commander Dax asked me to join her group here tonight." 

"What is all this?" Odo asked, bewildered. 

"It's our party," a soft voice whispered from behind him, very close to his ear. Odo whirled to find Kira smiling at him mischievously, beautiful in a forest-green dress that came to her ankles. Odo stared at her, bewildered.

"But you were asleep." 

"I would hardly have been any good as a resistance fighter if I hadn't been able to at least fake being asleep, Odo." Kira reached up to kiss him on the cheek. "Didn't you know that Bajorans have their parties before the wedding?" 

"But tomorrow — I thought we were —" 

"You mean the stuffy human thing with the cake? Yes, we'll have that, too." 

Meanwhile, the others were up and milling around, encircling the engaged couple with smiles and congratulations. 

"You know, I don't believe in counting my chickens before they're hatched, but I think she means to go through with it, Constable." Chief O'Brien smiled jovially, raising his mug of synthale. "To Major Kira and Security Chief Odo! Long life to the happy couple!" 

"Hear, hear!" came the cheerfully bellowed response from all sides as everyone raised glasses and drank. Bashir, already several mugs into the evening's celebrations, found the brass to step close to Odo and murmur:

"So, do you still want to have it removed?" 

A modest amount of tonic water threatened egress through Odo's nose as his face flushed a dull red. Kira, overhearing the doctor's remark, asked, "Have what removed?" 

"Nothing, Major — just a little appendage that was giving the him some trouble. I imagine it's all cleared up now." 

Kira looked closely into Odo's face, and at Bashir's humorous smirk. Eyes wide, she exclaimed, "Odo! You didn't ask him to -"

"Like he said, it's all cleared up now." Their conversation was drawing far too much attention from the surrounding party-goers. Odo remembered, wincing, how rowdy the few Bajoran prenuptial parties he had attended had gotten before evening's end. It looked like his own would prove no exception as Jake Sisko, of all people, called cheerfully, "So, Major Kira —"

"Nerys!" Kira shouted back, equally cheerful.

"So, Nerys, is it a little appendage?" 

Sisko did have the remaining decorum to elbow his son sharply. Kira, on the other hand, donned the most bewitchingly suggestive Cheshire cat smile, before finally saying, "You don't hear me complaining, do you?" 

There was a general bellow of laughter all around, and Odo resigned himself to his face being on fire for weeks to come. Worf, surprisingly jovial, said, "They say that a warrior's skill and cunning is the measure of his weapon. All things considered, Major, you should find yourself well-served." 

A general shout of laughter met this Klingon observation, accompanied as it was by Kira's demure smile of agreement and Odo's look of total mortification. At that point Quark popped up with a large tray of beverages.

"Fresh drinks! Drinks on the house!" 

"Hey!" Dax exclaimed, "I already paid for this whole party! Drinks included!" 

"Well, I didn't include this round. Drink, Odo?" 

Odo looked at the half-full glass in his hand. "I don't need —"

"Yes, but this one's better." Quark extricated the drink from Odo's clutching fingers. "It has gin in it." 

"Gin?" Odo sipped at the new beverage cautiously. It was still refreshingly lacking in sweetness.

"Trust me." Quark continued on his rounds, passing out glasses to various laughing recipients. Odo looked back at Dr. Mora, who stood watching him with a rueful smile.

"I have to admit," Mora said simply, "I never expected to see you like this." 

"What? Getting married?" 

"No — well, that's part of it. No, I mean not a shapeshifter anymore. Humanoid." 

"I — I never expected to see myself like this either, Doctor." Odo was taken aback by the renewed sense of loss that swept over him. To divert himself he added shortly, "I'm rather surprised you came." 

"Why would you be? We spent a lot of years together, Odo — you'll always be important to me, shapeshifter or not." 

Odo found himself once again speechless. Kira, listening quietly at his side, stepped in to fill the breach.

"Thank you, Doctor." She leaned over to kiss the scientist's cheek. 

"Please — call me Pol." 

"All right." Nodding, Kira smiled in agreement. Meanwhile, a small ruckus was brewing among the ranks, with a growing murmur of "Speech! Speech!" The request was formalized by Sisko, who pontificated:

"On the occasion of your last wedding, Constable, you were the one who took us by surprise." The captain referred to Odo's brief marriage of convenience to Lwaxana Troi, annulled shortly thereafter. "This time, though, we thought the surprise should be yours — now, we want you to put Kira up on that table right there and tell us why you want to marry her." 

Odo took on the look of an animal caught in a trap. Kira stood, smiling at him questioningly. Steeling himself, Odo reached out and caught her around the waist, hoisting her with relative ease to the spot indicated, thankful to note that it had four legs and was relatively stable.

"All right!" Jake crowed. There was an appreciative murmur all around as the din slowly hushed, although Dax had to jab Morn with her elbow before she could get him to quiet down. 

"I —" Odo got no further before he stopped. How did one put into words a longing that had taken roots in one's very soul? He looked up at Kira, and somehow found the answer in her wide, encouraging, questioning eyes. "Because I'm in love with her," he said simply, his eyes never leaving hers. He added, in a strong voice that held no shadow of doubt, "And because I know she's in love with me." 

"Oh, Odo ..." Kira dropped to her knees on the table and wrapped her arms around Odo's neck, fastening her mouth on his. Suddenly the onlookers ceased to be a concern as Odo kissed his bride-to-be until both of them were breathless.

After a respectful silence, the happy tumult recommenced. "Is he as good at that as he looks?" Dax inquired, amused, as Kira and Odo finally drew away from each other, and Odo helped Kira off of the table to once more stand beside him.

"Perfect," Kira assured her. "I trained him myself. You should try him sometime," she added generously, with a welcoming gesture. Odo had a moment to look extremely startled before Dax stepped up to accept Kira's invitation.

"Not bad," Dax said finally, stepping back. "But I sense a certain lack of enthusiasm." 

"Wrong partner." Odo faked a growl. Dax grinned at him, completely unconvinced.

"You know," Bashir inserted smoothly, "on Earth all the men get to kiss the bride —" 

"Julian," Kira shot back, "welcome to Bajor." 

"Right." Bashir subsided hastily, surrounded by a roar of laughter. Odo chuckled, slipping his arm around Kira's shoulders as though such demonstrations were the usual thing for him. He realized suddenly that something he had never expected was happening to him. He was enjoying himself at a party.

"I suppose this seems much better than having to do the Cardassian neck trick," Dr. Mora observed quietly. Odo glanced at him, startled, and gave a rueful smile of acquiescence. Mora nodded understandingly. "It may be hard to understand now, but — things like the 'Cardassian neck trick' helped to protect you, Odo." 

"Protect me? How?" Odo let his arm fall slowly from Kira's shoulders as he listened intently.

"Let's just say that it was — distracting. While they were laughing at the 'Cardassian neck trick' they weren't thinking about any other things you might be able to do for them." 

Odo nodded slowly, his comprehension slow and shattering and complete. In so many ways Mora _had_ been a father to him, caring for him as best he was able. As close to a parent as he would ever know, at any rate, and one who had done what he could to defend his strange alien charge. For all his faults and shortcomings, Mora was yet another Link, as were all of the beings celebrating around him. 

As the realization slammed into him, Odo wondered briefly at the awful pain of healing, the terrible joy of it, the appalling desire to embrace the world. Then he felt Kira's arms close around his waist. 

"Are you all right, sweetheart? We don't have to stay." 

"No ... no, _l'meytahl_ , I'm fine." Warmed by the Terran endearment, Odo responded with a Bajoran one. "I'm having a wonderful time." 

 

* * *

Thanks to the kindness of synthehol, no one turned up hung-over for the wedding. Which was definitely an advantage for anyone having to deal with an extremely agitated former changeling. 

Quark, resplendent in a richly embroidered jacket, eyed the pacing security chief with amusement as they waited in the small anteroom of the Bajoran temple. "Relax. She'll be here." 

Odo, unfamiliarly attired in the gray dress uniform of the Bajoran militia, wheeled on Quark like a razor cat on a vole. "She's late!" 

"Not quite," Quark observed. "She's just not early. Besides, Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien were telling me that weddings always start a little late — so the bride can make an entrance." 

"Am I late?" Kira stepped into the anteroom followed by Dax, her smile quickly mirrored by one from Odo. Kira wore the traditional garb of a Bajoran bride, a simple green dress with touches of rust that was flattering to her coloring. Her dark eyes were enormous.

"No." Odo smiled, all worries forgotten. "You're right on time." 

"I'd hate to miss anything," Kira said softly. She stepped forward until she stood nose to nose with Odo, sighing with contentment as he raised his lips to her forehead.

"You mean like you just missed breakfast?" Dax commented acerbically. "Odo, she couldn't eat a bite!" 

"I couldn't either," Odo said simply. "I told you it was foolish, making us sleep in our separate quarters last night." 

"At least you have something to look forward to tonight," Dax quipped. "Well, are you ready?" 

"I have been," Odo assured her, "for quite some time." Kira smiled and nodded, turning to face her Trill friend and tucking her hand in the crook of Odo's arm. 

"Let's do it." 

A Bajoran wedding was a pure orgy of signs and symbolism, the spoken word mingling with softly sung chants, and the sweet scent of incense rising over it all. In some ways, the bride and groom were the plainest things there, Odo with his simple uniform, and Kira with her unembellished dress, but their faces marked them as the focal point of the room, even as the four-hour ceremony ground interminably on. At least two hundred people on the station and from Bajor had made their way to where they could share in the special event — Odo had blinked, astonished, when they first walked out of the anteroom to face the crowd. Even though most of these people were friends of Kira's from the Resistance, there was a more than healthy spattering of his own security personnel as well, as well as a sizable group who could only be termed as co-workers and mutual friends. Dr. Mora sat next to Captain Sisko, beaming, his eyes bright and curious as he surveyed his former research subject. Sisko himself looked both pleased and apprehensive — _I can well imagine,_ Odo thought, _that having two of his senior officers in such a close personal relationship has its worrisome side attached._

No one noticed Chalan Aroya, seated discreetly towards the back of the chapel, her usual flamboyant attire replaced with something more subdued for this special occasion. Occasionally her gaze flitted to a spot by the chapel's aisle, where a dark Bajoran man in civilian clothes watched the proceedings with a more than friendly interest. His eyes didn't miss a movement as he surveyed first the couple and then the crowd, and occasionally fondled something that he held in his pocket. His movements were so subtle that he would easily have passed unnoticed, if it wasn't for the fact that Klingons found humanoid "romantic rituals" to be horribly boring, and Bajoran ones more boring than most. 

Commander Worf's gaze fell on the unknown Bajoran by chance, but once there it was riveted. He knew a predator when he saw one, and this man was a predator. The question was — which was his prey? Sisko? Major Kira? Odo? Worf slipped from his seat and positioned himself to move quickly as soon as the ceremony ended. 

Which it finally did, to the profound gratitude of the couple at the heart of the celebration. Bajorans didn't seal their weddings with a kiss, but with a stately walk down through their guests, greeting them in the name of the Prophets. Worf tensed. The unknown Bajoran was on the side of the temple where Kira had begun to personally welcome as many of her guests as she could. Worf saw the man's hand slip from his pocket, and the gleam of light on metal — the light flashed stealthily outward in a subtle killing strike, but the blow never reached its target.

Commander Worf caught the man's wrist in his hand, and snapped it for good measure. The small, needle-like knife the attacker had carried concealed in his pocket fell from suddenly nerveless fingers. Without missing a beat, Odo segued into security mode, snapping out orders, having the man arrested, and his weapon impounded as evidence. The would-be assassin, struggling in vain against the two sturdy security guards who had stepped forward to restrain him, turned suddenly and pointed through the crowd.

"She's the one who hired me! Why don't you try arresting _her_?"

Chalan Aroya had never expected that this paid underling's loyalty would remain bought. Nonetheless, her mission remained the same. 

She brought out a energy weapon from a fold of her dress and fired directly at Major Kira.

Odo and Quark both saw it coming — Quark dove low to knock the major's feet out from under her while Odo took the more instinctive option of stepping in the beam's path. Kira was safely on the floor before she realized what had happened, lying wedged somehow between Odo and Quark. Quark was noisy in his complaints as he attempted to untangle himself, but Odo didn't make a sound.

Chalan Aroya made no attempt to run away, but calmly handed her weapon to the person nearest to her and waited for one of the security guards to take her into custody. Her job was done, to her way of thinking, although perhaps not as it had originally been ordered. At any rate, it didn't look like Odo would be enjoying any benefit from his human status.

Kira crawled to Odo's head, her gaze fixed desperately on his face as she stroked the hair back from his forehead. Odo opened his eyes and smiled at her, whispering, "' _My end is my beginning_ ' ..." Then his blue eyes glazed over as though doused with milk, and he was very still. 

Bashir somehow made it through the crowd, slapping his combadge and shouting, "Medical emergency! Two to beam to the Infirmary, STAT!" He and Odo both disappeared in a glimmer of light, leaving a dumbstruck Bajoran woman in a green dress, pondering a future that suddenly loomed black. 

 

* * *

"Major — Nerys —" 

Kira slowly focused on the voice of her commanding officer, as Sisko squatted down by her side. She stared at him wordlessly, wondering at the numbness that had clutched at her very soul.

"Come on, Nerys — let me take you to the Infirmary." 

_The Infirmary — Odo was in the Infirmary._ Kira nodded slowly, and let the captain help her to her feet. Funny that she didn't feel a thing ... she followed Sisko quietly from the chapel, noticing with curious surprise how the crowd parted to let them pass, the sympathy that shadowed each face. _Sympathy? Because Odo was hurt? How silly of them, Odo would be fine_ — _who knew better than she did how hard it was to really damage a changeling?_

_Only Odo isn't one any more,_ a small voice taunted. _He's just a middle-aged human who took a disruptor hit for you. How well do think_ that _will turn out?_

Kira's eyes widened as she stared down the Promenade toward the Infirmary, and she gathered her skirt in her hands and started to run.

Bashir met her as she pelted through the door, his hopeless, shocked face making him seem far older than his years. "I'm sorry, Major," he said quietly. "He's gone." 

"Gone?" Kira whispered the word, trying to comprehend.

"The weapon — it's like nothing I've ever seen before. Sets up the neural sequences to fail in rapid progression, all involuntary and voluntary muscles to shut down in a matter of minutes, and apparently it's irreversible. At least _I_ couldn't reverse it." Bashir thrust a hand through his curly brown hair, compassionate eyes intent on Kira's face. "Nerys, would you like to sit down?" 

"Where is he?" Kira wondered for an instant where that cold, brittle voice came from, before realizing it was her own. 

"I have him in stasis," Bashir said briefly. "On the off chance there's some recent development out there I haven't encountered yet. I've already got Dax looking into it." 

"Take me to him," Kira ordered. Bashir led her through the main treatment room and the surgery, to the small room beyond that acted as a temporary morgue. There, wrapped in the glow of a stasis field, was the too-still form of the man who had held her laughing in his arms only the evening before — the man who had been looking forward with bemused anticipation to the surprises she had promised him tonight. Only it seemed that death had surprised them both.

"Please, Julian," Kira said softly. "I'd like to be alone." 

 

* * *

"How is she?" 

Sisko put the quiet question to his science officer and long-time friend, Jadzia-once-Curzon Dax. Dax sighed, pushing her hair back from her eyes as she straightened from her hunched position over the communications console. There was no need to ask who the captain meant.

"She finally went back to her quarters. She said she needed to pray." Dax, in her mind's eye, compared the radiant bride who had spoken her marriage vows with such confidence to the white-faced widow whose mouth was now set in such a hard, tight line. _Widow. Nerys is Odo's widow._ Dax gave a grim snort at the universe's latest cruel joke.

"What have we learned about Chalan Aroya?" Sisko decided to address a topic he thought he might possibly deal with. "Was she just 'the woman scorned'?" 

"No," Dax shook her head. "Bashir ran some tests on her. She's not even Bajoran. She's a surgically altered Vorta." 

"Vorta?" Sisko looked up sharply.

"Apparently the Founders wanted to make damned sure that Odo didn't actually get to where he enjoyed being human." 

"So they sent her after me." Sisko and Dax both jumped as they heard Kira's cold, clear voice sound from the doorway behind them. Once again in uniform, the Bajoran major stood practically at attention. "Only she ended up killing Odo instead." 

"Nerys," Sisko said quietly, "how are you doing?" 

"Well enough," Kira said briefly. "I'd like to take an extended leave of absence on Bajor when this is all over, Captain. If you don't mind." 

"Once we turn Chalan Aroya over to the Bajoran authorities, it pretty much _is_ over, Major. You certainly don't have to hang around for that." 

Kira looked at Dax. "No luck with finding information on how to reverse the effect of the energy weapon, Dax?" 

"No — but I'm not giving up yet." 

Kira gave a wry, hopeless smile. "I appreciate that. Then with your permission, Captain, I think I'll leave tomorrow. Lupaza is here, she can wait for me that long, but her katterpods won't wait after that." Lupaza was an old resistance comrade of Kira's, now a Bajoran farmer. "A little digging in the dirt sounds good right now." 

"All right." Sisko nodded gravely. "Major, if there's anything I can do —"

"It's all right, Captain," Kira said in a strong, decided tone. "We'll be fine." 

Kira turned on her heel and left before they could ask any more questions — questions that might melt the lump in her throat and make her start crying so hard that she could never stop. After hesitating briefly outside of Ops, she turned toward the Infirmary, steeling herself for the good-bye that needed to be said.

Bashir met her with a look of anxious concern, his doctor's eyes scanning her as carefully as any medical instrument. The only one to know her secret, his gaze lingered in the area of her abdomen. "Is everything all right? At least," he amended, "as right as can be expected?" 

Kira nodded briefly. "It's fine. I just ..."

"You just —?"

"I just wish I had gone ahead and told him. I was saving it for a surprise, for tonight." 

"He had no idea?" 

Kira shook her head. "Not an inkling." A ghost of her former smile flitted across her face. "He did make a comment a couple of days ago about how I was starting to grow a tummy. He said it was sexy." Kira closed her eyes as though at a sudden stab of pain.

"Major ..." Bashir began hesitantly.

"Yes?" Kira looked up hopefully at the possibility of a distraction. 

"Most couples — well, it's practically unheard of now for a woman to conceive without planning on it. Did you know beforehand that this was something you wanted to do?" 

Kira smiled a little. "You'll have to ask Dax to explain _tienju-pagh_ to you. One of the religious stipulations is no birth-control — although I hadn't quite gotten around to explaining that part of it to Odo." Kira's voice broke slightly as she spoke her dead husband's name.

"So — what happens now?" Bashir asked quietly.

"Now? Now, doctor, I go home to Bajor, resign my commission, and try to raise up a son who'll be a credit to what his father stood for." 

"A tall order." 

"Tell me about it." 

Kira mused silently for a moment, before asking, "May I see him? I may just stay here tonight, if that's all right. I — I need to say goodbye." 

"Go right ahead, Major. Don't hesitate to call if you need anything — or if you would just like someone to sit with you." 

"Thank you, Julian." Kira leaned over, impulsively kissing the young doctor's cheek. In some remote corner of her mind she felt a stab of amusement at his blush, before she turned to enter the small, quiet room that held the end to almost all her hopes.

_Hello, my love_ , she said silently, approaching the still form wrapped in a gentle field of light. _I hope you know how mad I am at you ... Quark had the right idea, none of us needed to get hurt. Why did you have to be some kind of hero and die for me?_

Someone had left a chair close to the stasis bed, and Kira sank into it gratefully, resigning herself to the tears that were finally beginning to at first slip, then fall, then pour down her cheeks, to the choking sobs that seemed to rip themselves from her gut. _At least you finally believed that I loved you. I suppose I should thank the Prophets for that._

At some point Kira began to talk out loud — almost trivia, some of it, or at least not things a corpse would normally be interested in. She told him about Aroya being a Vorta -"they're hermaphrodites who don't breed outside of a test tube, of course she didn't like having sex with you" — and went on to explain softly about her own condition.

"Odo, you know that tummy you thought I was getting? I'm going to have a baby — I meant to tell you tonight — actually, I guess I still am. Telling you tonight, I mean. It's a boy, so they say — I suppose the brown eyes will dominate, although I thought I'd like them to be blue like yours. Funny, all the little things we waste our time wanting ... all I can think of to want right now is for you to open your eyes and tell me I dreamed this whole mess." 

Kira dashed the tears from her eyes with her fingertips, squaring her shoulders resolutely. "Why didn't you tell me sooner how you felt?" she pondered. "I feel like we wasted so much time — years I could have been loving you. Instead of just a few months ... Prophets, I wish I could touch you. No, let me change that — I wish you could touch me." 

"Major Kira?" 

Kira looked up, startled, at the soft, reticent voice that sounded behind her. Turning, she saw Dr. Mora hesitating in the doorway, traces of an apologetic smile hovering around the corners of his mouth. Kira stared at him warily, feeling her usual ambivalence when confronted with this relic from Odo's past.

"Dr. Mora." 

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude — I just wanted to see him. If you like, I'll go." 

It occurred to Kira that she would, in fact, like him to leave, but she decided to be charitable. "You can come in for a minute." She sighed. "I think I've pretty much said what I needed to say." 

"Don't leave on my account, Major, please!" Mora raised a hand in protest. He approached the stasis bed slowly, his blue eyes thoughtful and sad. "You know," he said thoughtful, "the real miracle is that Odo ever managed to tell you that he loved you at all." 

"You were listening to me? Just now?" Kira's nostrils flared indignantly.

"I'm sorry, Major — when you've been a scientist as long as I have, you forget when observation might be considered eavesdropping. I apologize." 

"Then you know that I'm pregnant." 

"No — I didn't know that." Mora looked genuinely surprised. "I only got here a moment ago — I didn't hear that part. Do you want to be congratulated, Major? It's so hard to tell when something like that comes on top of something like this." He nodded at the still form on the stasis-bed.

"Maybe you should just pray for me." Kira's rueful smile faded as she added, "I forgot. You don't do that, do you?" 

"I occasionally offer up a word or two to the Prophets, during times of stress. I mostly just take their names in vain, though." Mora made a wry grimace. "Science has proven a far more reliable thing to put my faith in — I guess you could say that Odo was my miracle." 

"Funny," Kira murmured, "mine too." She looked up at Mora curiously. "Why do you think it's so remarkable that Odo finally told me that he loved me?" 

"Major, who knows how long he was in that capsule in the Denorios Belt before we found it? And then, in the lab — it took us a long while before we had any idea that he might be sentient. All of that time — all of those _years_ — alone in the universe with no one to love him, no one to touch him — seeing Odo able to fall in love with someone like you has come closer to making me believe that there might be more than meets the eye to these Prophets of ours than anything else I've ever encountered." 

"Well, it was no thanks to the scientists in your laboratory." Kira honestly didn't mean it to come out like that, but she didn't retract her words. " _Odo Ital_ — he finally told me that story, night before last. How could you do something like that? Make a joke out of calling him 'nothing'? How could you keep him in a lab at all after you found out he was sentient?" 

"Did Odo say that he wanted to leave? Before he actually did?" 

"No," Kira admitted. "Did he not?" 

"I think he was afraid to. Even a bad 'family' is better than no family at all, and we were the only family Odo had. I guess being that different was a little frightening, even for Odo." 

Kira remembered Odo's heart-wrung comments about his own face, and gave a slow nod. Then she shook her head angrily.

"I don't understand it! When he died, he almost seemed — happy! He smiled at me, and he said ..." Kira's voice trailed off as she remembered the exact words. "He said _'My end is my beginning'_. What do you think he meant?" 

"It's a line from a poem — Terran, I think. From their twentieth century. I'm sorry, I can't remember the poet, except that Odo was very fond of his work." 

"Odo had a favorite poet?" 

"He had several." Mora smiled. "The sharp, cynical ones, I'm afraid — but the one you just quoted has this odd streak of mysticism running through his works. Funny — it's like Odo turned out to be Galahad after all." 

"How did you know about that?" Kira asked sharply. "About our playing Camelot?" 

"Dax was kind enough to spend some time with me after — after the ceremony. She told me some stories about Odo's life during these past few months." 

"So how did he turn out to be Galahad? By being a hero?" _By being stupid?_ Kira raged silently.

"Well, in a sense ... Galahad died when he achieved the object of his quest, his ultimate goal. For Odo, I suppose that was you." 

Kira stared at the scientist, stricken, until Mora said, uncomfortable, "I've intruded on your grief long enough, Major. I just hope that — please keep in touch. I'd like to know when you have your baby ..." Mora's words trailed off ineffectually, and he sighed and left the room.

" _'My end is my beginning'_ ..." _Trust Odo_ , Kira raged silently, _to baffle me to the very last_. She stared at the quiet face of the man she loved, silent tears slipping down her cheeks.

It was much later that Kira became vaguely aware of the faintest of sounds, coming from the room behind her — trained resistance fighter, she whirled to see the surfaces slipping from three of the room's unlighted consoles, and froze as three changelings coalesced before her. She started to reach for her combadge before the foremost of the changelings, the seeming female Kira remembered from the Founders' original homeworld, put out a hand to forestall her.

"You," Kira hissed, contenting herself for the time being with putting all of her venom into that single word. "You've done what you set out to do. Why don't you just leave us alone?" 

Ignoring Kira, the female changeling stepped closer to the stasis-bed, looking down sadly at its occupant. "Poor Odo," she said simply. "It was not supposed to come to this." 

"That's what happens when you send in assassins," Kira blazed. 

The female changeling looked at her coolly. "Our target was never Odo, Major. Our target was you." 

"Fine! Then go ahead and —" Kira froze, belatedly remembering the child she carried. The female changeling gave a faint, condescending smile.

"You won't be able to carry it to term, you know. We had enough control over shaping Odo's genetic structure to make sure of that." 

Kira felt a sudden rush of nausea. _Bitch. You heart-leeching bitch. You want to take that, too?_ Refusing to let her enemy see how vulnerable she felt, Kira shrugged. "Then why don't you just kill me? Because I don't think I want to live without Odo." 

"Were you finally able to love him, Major?" The changeling leader sounded genuinely curious. "Just because he was a solid, like you?" 

"I would love Odo," Kira said through clenched teeth, "if he were a _gas!_ I just loved him! Can't you understand that? I loved him for being Odo, not for something stupid like what his nose looked like or what shape he was when he slept!" Kira angled her body between the table and the watching shapeshifter, setting her chin determinedly against the tears that threatened. _I'll be damned if I let this bitch see me cry._

"So you say now, Major. You will forgive me if I remain skeptical." The female changeling, followed closely by her compatriots, stepped around to the other side of the stasis bed. Reaching out, she deactivated a few controls, and the stasis field collapsed.

"What are you doing?" Kira demanded in a shrill voice. "Are you afraid we might figure out a way to fix him?" Her hand flew once again to her combadge.

"No," the female changeling said evenly, " _we_ are going to 'fix him'. As I said, our intent was never to harm Odo. Believe it or not, we still care about him. And we will not let him die." She gave Kira a keen look. "We _will_ show him and you once and for all how you will never truly accept a being so different from yourself. If I am wrong, Major — then Odo will deserve you. And you may almost deserve him." 

The female changeling gestured to her silent companions, who came to came to stand with her — and morphed.

Three golden columns rose and then descended on the motionless human body stretched out on the stasis-bed, obscuring it entirely in a vortex of shifting, throbbing, translucent amber gel. Kira stood frozen, caught somewhere between fear and desperate hope — did they mean it? Could they, would they, as they said, 'fix' Odo? Or were they stealing whatever chance that Bashir might yet find for him?

Even as Kira's hand crept nearer and nearer to her combadge, the puddle of merged changelings shifted and withdrew. Two of them turned into bolts of liquid protoplasm that shot out through the ventilation shaft, while the third solidified into the familiar shape of the female changeling.

On the table, in great danger of slipping off of it, lay a golden, amorphous mass that throbbed gently in the subdued light. 

"Your husband, Major — if you still want him," the female changeling said coolly. "I hope you both may learn a valuable lesson from all this — that Odo has no business here with you 'solids'. And that you will finally let him come home." 

In the wink of an eye, the Founder morphed and followed her comrades. Kira stayed frozen, staring at Odo in his gelatinous state. 

_At least, I think it's Odo_ \- _hell, how would I know? It isn't like he has any distinguishing features when he's like this!_ Kira slapped her combadge. "Dr. Bashir, report to the Infirmary! Medical emergency!" 

"I'm right here, Nerys, what —" Bashir stuck his head in the door, pausing in shock as he saw what the stasis-bed held. He then tore back out the door into the Infirmary beyond, returning with the oversized specimen container that had served Odo as a 'bed' during past hospitalizations. "Nerys, help me scoop Odo into this! I don't want to risk the transporter until I've had a chance to check him out." 

Kira obeyed blindly, without question, even though she shivered a bit at encountering Odo's substance. Soft and fluid, but silken, and surprisingly dry — _it's not bad_ , she told herself. _Just very, very_ -

_Alien._

The word shot into her mind in place of the "different" she had honestly meant to use. _My husband the alien. Prophets, will he even want me anymore?_

Bashir meanwhile was snapping out orders as they carried the container into the main treatment room of the Infirmary, and Bashir installed it carefully on one of the diagnostic beds, before plugging in recalibrations, his fingers flying over the touchpad. He stepped back and observed the readings carefully, his brow furrowed in intense concentration. Finally he nodded.

"Major — it looks like Odo." He tore his gaze away from the readings to give Kira an incredulous smile. "Whatever happened?" 

"Three of the Founders were here," Kira said in a tight voice.

"What?!" Bashir looked around him, startled.

"I suspect they're gone now, unless they're watching to see what we — what I do next." Kira went to stand next to the bio-bed, resting her fingertips on the rim of Odo's tub. "They think that I'll reject him now that he's a changeling again — and that he'll finally come 'home'. Now it's up to me — and him — to convince them that Odo's true home is here with me — with us." Kira rested her hands against her abdomen, and then looked at Bashir in sudden alarm. "The leader — she said that I wouldn't be able to carry Odo's and my baby to term, that they'd done something to his genetic structure. Julian, is that possible?" 

"Get up on this other table," Bashir ordered. "I'll run a complete diagnostic and genetic scan on the fetus. I think Odo's just going to lie there and regenerate for a while, anyway. It's funny, though — in some ways his liquid-state readings are more 'stable' than I've ever seen them." 

"What do you mean?" Kira asked curiously, as she moved to comply with his orders. 

"Just a fancy, really — it's almost like he means to stay that way." Bashir avoided meeting Kira's sudden shocked stare.

Bashir ended up running three series of scans before he was satisfied with his results. Nodding slowly, he commented, "They certainly did build in a nasty little trigger — but it looks like they're fallible after all. Catching it this early, it's something that can be repaired with fetal surgery, and no harm done to you or the baby." Bashir gave a wry smile. "I can't tell you how much better it makes me feel to know that the Founders can make mistakes." 

"How soon do I need to have the surgery?" 

"Oh, the sooner the better. I'm going to call my assistants now." Bashir stepped into his office, already intent on this latest medical challenge. Kira looked down at Odo, resting quietly in his 'bucket', and reached out to let her fingers brush cautiously against his substance. It seemed to shimmer in response, thrumming with greater intensity against her fingertips — Kira slowly drew her hand away, swallowing hard at the sudden knot in her throat.

_I love you, Odo. No matter what, I love you_ \- _I'll always love you. I loved you as a human, I love you now. Only ... what if they've locked you in this form instead?_

Kira shivered at the thought. 

 

* * *

Coming to after surgery, Kira's first thought was for the occupant of the diagnostic bed next to her own. She had been surprised when Bashir insisted on general anesthesia, when a simple neural block would have done the trick, but Bashir had shrugged and said, "I'm sorry, Major, but I think you could just use the rest." 

Now her mind did feel clearer, and infinitely calmer. Bashir, leaning over her as she awakened, smiled as he followed her gaze. 

"Still regenerating." 

"How long now?" Kira wanted to know, sitting up to take a better look at the slumbering Odo.

"Oh ... about eight hours." Bashir was clearly uncomfortable with the question, and where he suspected it might lead.

"That's too long," Kira said quietly.

"Well, it has been a while," Bashir observed. "Maybe he just needs the extra time to make up for all of those months in a solid state." 

"Maybe," Kira said quietly. She then turned to her other immediate concern. "The baby?" 

"Will be fine," Bashir assured her. "A perfectly healthy human-Bajoran hybrid." 

"That's good." Kira smiled wanly. She asked, in a wistful tone, "Do you know what color his eyes will be?" 

"What?" Bashir looked startled at the question, but obligingly scanned his data. "Well, give me a moment ... yes, here it is. Blue. Like his father's." 

"Really?" Kira felt a stab of absurd pleasure. 

"Yes, human genes tend to dominate over Bajoran ones when it comes to eye color — although he will have your nose." 

"I can live with that," Kira announced. She then noticed a flurry of activity as two figures entered the Infirmary and headed for her bedside.

"Major." Captain Sisko took her hand in his, squeezing it gently. "How are you feeling?" 

"I'm all right." Kira let her eyes shift from Sisko's face to that of Dax, leaning over her other side. "Hello, Dax. Did Julian tell you?" 

Jadzia smiled, nodding happily. "I'm so glad for you, Nerys." 

"We'll just be glad to see you both up and around again, Major — and I think that both of you should take that leave on Bajor." 

"I hope Odo will be up for it," Kira said quietly. The human captain and the Trill science officer both turned to look in the direction of Kira's gaze, to where Odo rested quietly in his specimen container. 

Not a man for platitudes, Sisko contented himself with a gentle, "I hope so, too." 

It turned out that Sisko and Dax were but the first in a string of visitors, all of whom seemed eager to congratulate or commiserate with Kira, but extremely shy about approaching the Infirmary's other patient. It wasn't until Quark strolled in that Odo was directly addressed.

Walking over to peer down directly into Odo's 'bucket', Quark nodded and said, "Just like you. Lie there and listen to what everyone has to say, so you can use it against 'em later. Well, if you're expecting me to confess to anything — don't!" 

He then turned to Kira, watching amused from her biobed. "How are you doing, Major?" 

"Feeling just fine, Quark. I haven't had the chance to thank you for what you did." 

"Eh ... it wasn't much." 

"It was _smart_ ," Kira said briefly. "I just wish Odo had stayed out of the way and let you take care of it — then none of us would be here right now, and I'd be on my honeymoon." 

_And possibly losing your baby,_ a small reminder sounded in her head. Kira started a little, then met Quark's look of veiled concern with a wry grimace. "I think the Ferengi may be right about something," Kira said quietly.

"What's that?" Quark looked agreeably surprised at the comment.

"Nothing worth having is free." 

"That's part of the thirty-seventh Rule of Acquisition," Quark noted.

"Really? What's the other part?" 

"The whole Rule is 'Nothing worth having is free — but they can't blame you for trying.'." 

"You know," Kira said with a slow grin, "that's not a bad rule." 

"I've always liked it." Quark smiled and nodded. "Well, I just wanted to see how you and the constable were doing — I'd better be going. It looks like a good time to close some business deals that are pending." 

"You'd just better be sure that none of those deals are illegal! We won't be in here forever," Kira snorted, even while her heart warmed. She didn't for a minute think that Quark's first concern was how much easier he could conduct his usual nefarious practices. 

"I'm counting on it." Presuming so far as to reach out and give Kira's hand a pat, Quark turned and left, though not without giving Odo a curious poke. Kira giggled as she imagined Odo's likely reaction, and then her expression sobered as her gaze fixed on her seemingly shape-locked husband. She slipped off the biobed and padded over to stand at Odo's side, reaching down to stroke his resting surface.

"You feel just like silk, did you know that?" she asked softly. "You know, I don't think I ever felt you while you were in a liquid state." 

She continued touching Odo's substance gently -- then gasped as a tendril detached itself to wrap gently around her wrist. Kira stared at her husband's gelatinous form more closely, and whispered, "Odo? Odo, are you awake?" 

In response, Odo sent a little more of himself up to caress her hand and wrist in a gentle, massaging motion. Kira's eyes went wide with shock.

"You can't shift, can you?" she murmured. "You're locked in this form -- just like you were locked into being human." 

Odo withdrew from her hand in what almost felt like a sigh of acquiescence. There was a faint rippling in his surface, a shifting and changing, parts withdrawing while a series of fine, thin raised lines took shape. Kira looked closer.

There, like waves in Odo's substance, was the Bajoran word for, "Yes." 

Somehow Kira forced herself not to pull her hand away, not to hide her face in horror. This was the person she loved, her _tienju-pagh_ from the Prophets.

_This._

It was even harder not to start screaming. 

 

* * *

The faces that surrounded the conference table in Sisko's ready room the following morning were relentlessly positive — Kira would have preferred it, she thought, if they had relaxed to show the grimness underneath. One member of senior staff was conspicuous by his absence, which was ironic considering that it was he and his position which were under discussion.

Kira, tired and little sore, surreptitiously rubbed the back of her neck, trying to ease the taut muscles — Dax caught the movement out the corner of her eye, and Kira tried to smile in response to the Trill's compassionate gaze. Her face felt like a mask, locked in a look of determined optimism — Kira sighed and firmly rejected the tears that threatened to come to her eyes. Tears wouldn't help either Odo or herself as they tried to sort out the mess into which the Founders had thrust them. 

"The question is, can Odo do his job while he's like this?" Sisko spoke straight to the heart of the matter. "I honestly don't see how he can." 

"Odo is very resourceful," Dax protested. "I think it's really too early for us to assume that." 

Sisko turned to Bashir, who hadn't said a word since the meeting got underway. "Doctor, what _is_ Odo's condition? What exactly is it that he can and can't do?" 

Bashir drummed his fingers lightly on the tabletop, obviously gathering his thoughts before saying, "If Odo were still human and he had, for example, lost the use of his limbs, I would consider what he's going through as — more psychological than anything else." 

"What is that supposed to mean?" O'Brien asked sharply. He was more upset than he liked to let on, both on Kira and Odo's behalf. "Are you saying he's crazy?" 

"No, not at all," Bashir said adamantly, shaking his head. "No, it's just that there's nothing physical preventing him from making a humanoid form — his readings are absolutely normal in that they match what they were when he was a healthy changeling. He can still manage some things — he has no trouble understanding what's said to him, so I assume he's structuring himself some sort of tympanic membrane to hear with, and his infrared sensors are able to distinguish what's around him the same as they did before when he was a changeling. Also, he's able to form very simple solid forms — pseudopods of a sort, if you would. He can push a button if he has to, or a keypad. He just can't seem to master the complexities of duplicating another life form, or a more complex inanimate object. It's like he's forgotten. Perhaps it's just a matter of his learning it again." 

"It took him years the first time," Kira said softly. This was also the first time Kira had commented on the proceedings, and all eyes turned to her respectfully, and in commiseration. "I think I can answer the question about him doing his job, though. It isn't a question of whether or not he _can_ do it, it's a question of whether or not he _will_. I don't think that he will -- not like this." 

"Major," Sisko asked slowly, "what do you mean?" 

"Odo has always ... prided himself on how well he does his job. Like this ... he'd be hard-pressed to do it at all. Besides ... how many of you have ever actually seen Odo in a liquid state other than circumstances when he couldn't avoid it?" Kira nodded at the blank looks that met her all around. "Exactly. Odo doesn't want to be seen like this. It would be like asking one of you to — to work naked." 

Sisko looked at her solemnly. "Then I'm temporarily putting Commander Worf in charge of station security. I trust, Major, that you or Odo will let me know when Odo's ready to reassume his responsibilities." 

"Of course," Kira said quietly. The meeting broke up almost immediately thereafter. Worf, not overly sensitive to matters outside his own Klingon honor, said to Kira, "It would be easiest if Odo gave me the codes to his personal security logs. When do you think he'll be ready to do that?" 

Kira glared at Worf, secretly ecstatic at this ideal opportunity to lose her temper. "I think he'll want to do that when — what's that human expression? Oh, yes — when hell freezes over." As Worf stared at her in offended indignation, Kira added shortly, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go take my husband home." 

The word _husband_ hung oddly in the sudden, intense quiet, and Kira's outrage expanded to take in the entire room. "What's wrong with that? He's not sick — and I want him with me." 

"Of course you do," Dax said, quiet but firm. "That's where he belongs." 

"You're absolutely right," Bashir said strongly, with determined professional cheer. "It's the best place for him — it might even help him remember the things he's forgotten. For all I know, this is some sort of amnesia — he could get over it just like that." Bashir snapped his fingers, exuding a confidence than none of them felt. 

"I sure hope so," Kira said quietly. "In the meantime, will you help me get him home?" 

"I think we should just have him transported directly to your quarters," Bashir told her as they left Ops. 

"That's probably a good idea," Kira agreed. She walked with her hands clasped behind her, obviously lost in thought.

"Have you told him yet?" Bashir asked hesitantly, as the silence lengthened between them.

Pausing just before reaching the door of the Infirmary, Kira looked at the young doctor, puzzled. "Told him? Told him what?" 

"About that." Bashir nodded in the direction of Kira's abdomen. Kira's hand flew to the area indicated, stroking it absently. 

"No, not yet. I thought it might be too much right now." 

"I think some good news might be just what the doctor orders right now," Bashir observed. "Go ahead and tell him tonight." 

"I'll see how he feels," Kira sidestepped any commitment on the subject. "Right now I just want to get him home." 

"You keep saying that like it's some sort of — magic spell," Bashir murmured as they stepped through the Infirmary door. Kira gave him a brief glare, before crossing over to the biobed that held Odo's container. Odo was bunched in the tightest space possible in one of the corners, somehow emanating abject misery without a single feature to project it. Kira reached into the container and touched him gently, and was rewarded by a sudden flow of golden substance around and up her fingers, as Odo clutched at her in a clear show of gratitude. 

"We're ready, Julian," Kira said quietly. 

"Wait — before you go —" Bashir handed Kira an oversized data-PADD with an unusually large touchpad. "It's the sort that children use, when they're first learning to write — I thought that the controls might be easier for Odo to manipulate, for the time being." 

"Julian, I ..." Suddenly at a loss, Kira gave the doctor a quick, fierce hug. "Thank you." 

"Any time, Nerys. I wish ... I just wish I could do more." Bashir called for the computer to activate the transporter, and the familiar walls of Kira's quarters soon materialized around the major and her much-altered husband. Kira looked down into the specimen container at her side, and tried to fight down the sense of helplessness that seemed to seep into her very _pagh_. "Well, Odo," she said finally, "we're home." 

Odo slowly expanded from the corner of the container, and then, almost faster than the eye could see, shot across the room and disappeared through the bedroom door, a gelid projectile of golden light. Startled, Kira ran across the room to follow him, poking her head cautiously through the door. The room seemed undisturbed, and Odo was nowhere to be seen.

"Odo?" Kira whispered. She entered the room cautiously, and went to investigate in the bath beyond. 

_Still no Odo._ Kira looked around the room at a loss, and fear was quick to transmute into anger.

"Odo! You get the hell out of wherever you're hiding! Don't you _dare_ do this to me!" 

The was a long, still pause, during which Kira could hear the beating of her heart. A large, racking sob burst from her chest, like a strangled scream. "Dammit, I love you! Don't shut me out!" 

Kira sank down on the bed and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly, vividly conscious of the new life making steady, stealthy progress in her womb. Tears poured down her cheeks, with Kira helpless to stop them. 

Then she felt a gossamer touch against her cheek, and opened her eyes to see Odo's gelatinous form poised on the edge of the bed, while a single tendril of his substance wiped the tears from her cheeks. Kira gulped and reached out a tentative hand, touching him gently in turn. 

"Oh, Odo," she murmured, "what a _grie'korl_ this is." She used the Bajoran equivalent for something Sisko had said earlier when he called Odo's and her situation 'a total balls-up'. An additional protuberance snaked out from Odo and brushed the hair back from Kira's forehead, feeling rather like a heavy silken scarf brushing against her skin. Kira managed a wry, sweet smile, and, on an impulse, reached down to run her hands lightly over her abdomen. 

"Remember how I told you I had some surprises for you? Well, the biggest one was this — I'm pregnant." _Prophets_ , Kira thought in despair, _if I could only read the expression on your face — if you only had a face to read._

Odo seemed to shrink in on himself, drawing away from her a little on the bed. _Is he angry? Hurt?_ _As terrified as I am?_

Kira forced herself to keep her tone level. "I guess the timing could be better — but we're going to have a baby." She gave the slight curve of her abdomen a final caress. Odo was absolutely still for a moment, before slipping across the bed to curl against Kira's belly, his substance taking up a gentle vibration, a soothing thrumming that she felt from her head to her toes. A wordless expression of love, reaching across the void that seemed to separate them.

"I know," Kira whispered. "I love you, too." 

She reached out and touched Odo tenderly, even while she wondered if the abyss that loomed between them could ever be fully bridged. 

 

* * *

"There you go, Major. One genuine shapeshifting apparatus, installed and ready to use." 

Miles O'Brien stood back from Odo's sculpture-like 'jungle gym', newly reassembled in the middle of the main living area in what had once been Kira's quarters, and now housed Odo as well. O'Brien gave Kira his usual easy smile as he reached up to wipe the sweat from his brow. Kira smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Chief ... it's too hot in here for you to be doing this. I'm so cold all the time when I'm pregnant, I forget the rest of the station isn't freezing along with me. Let me get you something cold to drink." 

"You're really starting to bloom there," O'Brien observed cheerfully, nodding in the direction of Kira's swollen abdomen. Kira nodded, running her hands over her belly. 

"Only one more month to go, unless the human angle throws me for a loop," Kira commented. "Bashir doesn't think I'll go more than half a month over, though." 

"I imagine that's a relief." O'Brien smiled, and accepted the glass of chilled juice that Kira provided him from the replicator. "I remember how you were that last month carrying Kyoshi." 

Kira laughed. "You mean when he was so late? I remember, too — depressed, bitchy, and horny as hell." 

O'Brien let out a hearty guffaw, which faded rather quickly. Kira blushed, remembering a few uncomfortable exchanges that had passed between them while she was carrying the O'Briens' baby, no doubt due to some fundamental pheromonal link caused by the fact that the child in her womb was Miles' own. Still, looking at him standing there, his sleeves pushed up his muscular forearms and sweat sheening his face, Kira felt an unwelcome rush of heat to her groin.

_It's just hormones,_ she told herself sternly. _We Bajoran women get like this when we're pregnant, it can't be helped. Of course,_ Kira added wryly, _it would be nice if there was something I could do about it ..._

"How's Odo?" O'Brien asked, in an awkward change of topic. "I don't think I've seen him since before — well, since your wedding." 

"Other than a few visits people made to the Infirmary, I don't think anyone has other than Bashir, Dax, and me." 

"Dax?" O'Brien said curiously. "Odo will see Dax?" The chief sounded a little hurt.

"She's helping Julian come up with a better means for Odo to communicate. He's had to see her to do some testing on that." 

"How's it coming?" 

"Pretty well, I think — after all, they've been working on it since almost the beginning. Three months now." 

_Three months,_ Kira thought in sudden despair. Three months of a relationship that seemed to hang in space, quite unchanging — not distant, exactly, in some ways still tender, but more frighteningly alien than Kira would have admitted to anyone, including, in the beginning, herself. 

"Well, I'd best be getting on, Keiko will be putting supper on the table — you'll have to join us one evening, pay Kyoshi a little visit." 

"I'd like that," Kira said quietly. "Maybe in a week or two." It had been her standard answer for the last three months.

"Well, whenever — it's an open invitation." 

"Thanks, Miles." Kira walked with O'Brien as far as the door, and stood watching wistfully as he hurried away, home to his wife and children.

Stepping back from the doorway with a sigh, Kira at last went in search of her husband, and was pleased to find him at the computer console in the bedroom, draped over the data screen and keypad like a blanket. No doubt a lot of security reports were being absorbed under that blanket ... Kira rested her hands lightly against Odo's surface, combing his substance with gentle fingers. As he formed protrusions to caress her palms, Kira said softly:

"Miles is finished setting up your shapeshifting apparatus — and I'm going to take a nap." She watched with a stab of rare amusement as Odo detached himself from the console and launched himself across the room toward the door to the living area, before she turned to lower herself awkwardly on the bed. Lying on her back, Kira ran her hands automatically over her swollen abdomen, then more hesitantly over her breasts. She let out a sigh.

<Pong!> The doorcom sounded a soft, clear peal. Propping herself up on her elbows, Kira called, "Who is it?" 

"It's Dax. May I come in?" 

_Oh, good,_ Kira thought tiredly, _at least Odo won't be hiding in the ventilation duct again._ Flopping back down, Kira responded, "Come!" 

"You look like you've beached yourself," Dax observed cheerfully, entering the room and coming to sit on the edge of the bed. "How is he?" 

"Lively," Kira assured her friend, "very lively." She nodded in invitation, and Dax in turn rested her hand on Kira's distended abdomen.

"Oh, my — feels like somersaults." Dax shook her with an amused grimace. "Nerys, you have to start having more sex. It tires them out ... believe me, it may have been a few lifetimes ago, but I still remember!" 

"So, what brings you by?" Kira pointedly changed the subject. Dax studied her from under raised eyebrows. 

"I just wanted to see how you were doing. Julian seemed to be worried about you last time I spoke with him." 

"Really?" Kira turned her concentration to a careful study of her fingernails. "I can't think why — I'm fine." 

"Nerys, you're Bajoran, you're pregnant ..." Dax leaned in closer, until they were almost nose-to-nose. "And you aren't getting any." 

Kira threw up her hands in exasperation, looking away. "Jadzia, this is really none of your business." 

"I'm your friend," Dax said quietly. "You're running the risk of becoming seriously ill." 

"I can handle it myself!" Kira hauled herself off the bed and crossed to a chair on the other side of the room, where she lowered herself awkwardly. Dax pursued her, relentless as a bloodhound.

"Nerys, you can't help it! It's the way you vascularize! The blood vessels in your reproductive system are becoming dangerously congested! Now, what happened to that holoprogram Julian prescribed for you when you were carrying Kyoshi?" 

"I couldn't use that now!" 

"Why the hell not?" 

"Because it was a holoprogram of Edon! I'm not with Edon anymore!" 

"Fine! I'll design you a holoprogram of Odo!" 

Kira looked at Dax with widening eyes as the dam prepared to burst. "I don't _want_ a holoprogram!" she screamed. " _I want Odo!"_ Kira thrust out her fists in front of her, clawing helplessly at the air. Dax caught the grasping hands in hers, holding them together in a tight grasp. 

"Nerys ..." Dax gave Kira a few moments to collect herself. "Why can't you and Odo —?" 

"What?" Kira stared at her friend, frozen. She asked, her tone sharp, "What are we supposed to do?" 

"Well," Dax ventured, "you could — touch each other." 

"No." Kira shook her head. "Not that I would mind!" she hastened to add. "I wouldn't mind, but Odo —" Kira stopped abruptly, looking away.

"You think Odo would mind?" Dax asked incredulously.

"I think he might." 

"Why would he? He certainly wanted to make love to you before!" 

"That was different. He was human then. Dax, I'll be fine. I just don't want to talk about this." 

"Nerys, Odo was in love with you a long time before he was human. What do you think that meant to him then? That he wanted to spend the nights with you playing kistrel?" 

Dax, with at least two clever strategists among her prior hosts, knew when to strike, and when to withdraw. With a soft, "Think about it," she kissed Kira on the forehead and left.

After Dax had gone, Kira hoisted herself awkwardly to her feet and returned to the bed, determined to re-embark on the nap her friend had interrupted. She once again ran her hands over her body, a look of grim determination knitting her brow. _It isn't like I've never had to do something like this before_. _I just never had to do it with my lover sitting in the next room._

Kira sighed, letting her hands fall to her side. She knew perfectly well, in theory, the truth of Dax's words — for a pregnant Bajoran, sex wasn't just a pleasant pastime, it was a necessity. Her species having decided for some reason in the far distant past that survival lay in pair-bonding, her body needed the stimulation that only regular sexual interaction could give it to guarantee her continued health during her pregnancy, and to get her ready to go into labor. Kira could well remember her days in the Resistance, when more than one pregnant woman in her Resistance cell had lost her husband to violence or disease ... and the necessary compromises that had ensued. Generally speaking, unless the woman in question had some prior secondary attachment that lent itself to establishing a sexual relationship, Shakaar Edon had ended up doing the honors. Kira could still hear in her mind's ear the muffled sounds of feminine passion entirely divorced from any gentler pleasure ... and the sobs of grief and loss that frequently followed. 

_Maybe that's what went wrong with Edon and me,_ Kira thought, thankful to be distracted by a more academic concern, _back when I was pregnant with Kyoshi._ She reflected on her memories of Shakaar's haggard face the mornings after those tragedy-necessitated encounters. _He thought that was all behind him_ — _and suddenly, there I was, another pregnant woman carrying a child he had no part in making. I imagine that was enough to emasculate anyone_ — _even Edon._

A soft movement on the foot of the bed distracted Kira from her reflections, and she glanced around her distended belly to see Odo poised near her feet, extending a soft tendril of his flesh to gently encase her ankle. So much love, so much caring in that simple touch — Kira smiled and said, "Come on up." 

Instead of moving along her side, Odo slid so that his substance was draped over Kira's ankles, and began to tentatively ooze his way up. Kira couldn't restrain a gasp at the delicate, enticingly erotic sensation like heavy, animate silk creeping across her flesh. "You were listening to Dax and me, weren't you?" she whispered, involuntarily folding her arms across her chest. Then she forced herself to lower them back to her side, taking a deep breath before she took hold of the loose tunic that covered her and wiggled it off over her head. 

_I honestly thought I didn't care a bit,_ Kira mused ruefully, even while she continued to prepare herself, tossing the tunic to one side and rearranging the pillows behind her before sliding her thumbs under the waistband of her underpants. _It isn't that I actually mind, it's just that it's so -- different. I guess I must really be the provincial type Dax is always teasing me about. Still, I bet even Dax has never done anything quite like this._

Nonetheless, there was an undeniable, silky sensuality in Odo's touch against her bare skin, the way his substance flowed lightly around her torso and then up to caress her stomach and breasts, setting up a soft sucking motion against her rapidly hardening nipples. Pausing in his progress while Kira pushed down her underwear, Odo then poured past her fingers to encompass her thighs, spilling over her pubis to the waiting depths beneath, his gelid form taking on more hardness and density as it swelled inexorably to fill her. Kira's orgasm slammed into her with a suddenness that was almost violent, and she shrieked and screamed in the intensity of her passion.

Then, it was over. Kira ran her hands through the amber gel that covered her body, and burst into tears. 

She could feel Odo tensing, contracting, beginning to withdraw from her. "No!" Kira exclaimed, "don't —" She clutched at him, even while wondering how she could ever hold on to him should he decide to ooze through her fingers. "I want you here, I need you. I just wish — I wish I could see your _face_ ..." 

_Hormones._ So Kira dismissed her own anguish, as she cried as though her heart would break. 

 

* * *

"Doctor," Sisko's question came without warning, as he and Julian were chatting companionably over bowls of soup at the Replimat, "how _is_ Major Kira? She says she's fine, but she doesn't look well." 

Bashir paused between bites to give the matter his full consideration. "Well, she's actually a bit better than she was. She isn't showing such high levels of reproductive vascular congestion, although she's not out of danger ... she waited an awfully long time before doing something about it, and she's in such a low state of mind, anyway." 

Sisko, who hadn't been expecting nearly so technical a response, lowered his spoon to stare at his chief medical officer in concern. "In danger ... what exactly are you talking about, Doctor?" 

"Oh!" Bashir blinked, surprised. "Bajoran women are prone to something called congestive reproductive failure, when — when certain factors aren't present in their personal lives." 

"Factors? What factors?" Sisko looked at Bashir sharply, wondering why the doctor was hedging. 

Bashir sighed, looking around him and lowering his voice before continuing. "Captain, when your \- when you and your late wife were expecting Jake, did you by any chance find her — particularly appealing?" 

A soft, warm look of remembrance flitted through Sisko's eyes. "Oh, yes," he affirmed softly. "Very much so." 

"Which is a very normal response — it made you more loving, it made you more protective. Physically, it also helped guarantee that — that your wife would remain relaxed, and consequently find it easier to deliver." 

Sisko's dark eyes narrowed with dawning comprehension. "So you're saying that —" 

"Bajoran women, the way they vascularize with their fetuses — well, it's complicated, but what it all boils down to is that when a Bajoran woman is pregnant, she _has_ to be sexually active. There are other specifics — I can give you some data PADDs if you're interested —"

"I don't think that will be necessary," Sisko interjected quickly. "Doctor — Major Kira was pregnant before under rather unusual circumstances. How was she — I mean, I assume you had to come up with a solution for this problem before." 

"Oh, I did — that is, Dax and I did. I prescribed a holoprogram for her — she used it three times a week." 

"A holoprogram." Sisko's eyes widened as he considered the severity of the circumstances that would drive Kira to use such a holoprogram, at Quark's of all places, and blushed as he recalled a certain funding request of Bashir's that he had rejected, one to install a small holosuite in conjunction with the Infirmary. "Don't you — doesn't she still have it?" 

"Umm ... wrong partner," Bashir said briefly. Sisko nodded slowly, suddenly embarrassed to have made such personal inquiries into one of his officer's lives. "Besides, she and the — she and her husband seem to have finally worked something out." 

Sisko wouldn't even begin to speculate. "So, in other words, things should be all right now." 

"That remains to be seen." Bashir refused to display his usual optimism. "She left it until it was awfully late. Her body temperature was somewhat elevated during her last physical — I nearly kept her in the infirmary, except that would have ended any possibility of her — her continuing to work on the problem herself." 

"This 'congestive reproductive failure' you're talking about — what exactly can it do?" 

"Do?" Bashir's eyes widened as he contemplated the possibilities. "At the very least it can necessitate a C-section. At the worst ..." Bashir shook his head.

"At worst?" Sisko prodded.

"At worst it could kill her. And her baby." 

 

* * *

Like a pool of liquid sunset, the changeling the Cardassians had dubbed _odo'ital_ spilled from the foot of the bed of the Bajoran woman who was his wife, and considered his choices.

Kira lay quietly, her breaths a steady, deep soughing as she slept — in the end, she always slept. They made love, she cried, and then she fell asleep, exhausted by the passion that had racked her body. Odo suspected that what he had overheard Dax saying was true. When he sometimes curled up against Kira's swollen belly in the aftermath — by no stretch of the imagination could it be termed the after _glow_ — the baby in her womb had quieted faster than Kira herself, presumably tired out by his mother's exertions. 

Odo felt rather racked as well, by guilt at his own pleasure. _Does Nerys have any idea,_ he wondered, _how marvelous it feels to me when I touch her like this? These past few days_ — _how much I've enjoyed being with her this way, feeling her, tasting her, loving her with every cell of my body, caressing and getting to know her every pore, every hair, every hidden fold? Does she realize that the warm liquid that spills from her is as close as I've come to recapturing the pure physical joy of being one with the Great Link?_

No, of course she didn't know — how could she? She only knew that the child within her came closer to birth every day, and that the husband she had trusted to care for her, to nurture her, had proven unequal to the task. Yet she still loved him, smiled at him, called out his name at the height of her passion — Odo's liquid form shuddered as he contracted in a bit on himself.

The guilt. The guilt alone felt like it would consume him — but would the pain of the only other choice that was available to him be even quicker to destroy him? 

Kira moaned in her sleep, and Odo crept back up on the bed, noting with concern her flushed cheeks. He extended a tendril of golden flesh, brushing her face tenderly — Kira opened her eyes and smiled, her loving gaze piercing him like a flame that would burn him to nothing but a heap of charred ash. 

_Now._ The voice in his mind would brook no objections — it was as though it were the voice of the Prophets themselves. _She is your Link, you have no other. Kira Nerys is your life._

Kira, in marked contrast, felt only calm as she looked at her husband, and remembered with a surprised rush of pleasure how his silken substance felt against her skin, caressing her breasts and her thighs and her soft, secret places. With it came a stab of remorse ... _he makes love to me, and I act like he's beaten me. Crying my eyes out ... for what? He loves me ... and it feels wonderful._ With some amazement, Kira realized that what she said was true. For the first time she contemplated the unusual turn her sex life had taken with anticipation rather than apprehension as she reached out to Odo, combing him gently with her fingertips. Her mouth curved in an apologetic moue. 

"I'm sorry. I haven't meant to be so ... ungrateful." Kira continued her delicate combing, her voice soft and contrite. "It's just that — it's hard to explain. We all have dreams of how we think our lives should go ... I never had many, at least not during the Occupation, it seemed to just be asking for trouble. But when the Cardassians left, I started dreaming again. And then, with you ... 

"You just get pictures in your mind, things you expect to see. I'll get this image of you, holding our son in your arms ... only you don't have arms to hold him in, and it startles me, just a little. It's hard to let it go, but I do love you, Odo. I'll always love you." 

Kira smiled through the tears that were beginning to once again spill down her cheeks. "So why don't we try that again?" she said softly. "I'm sure Dr. Bashir would say I could use the overtime." 

In response Odo curved sensuously against her, shaping himself gently to her breasts and setting up a soft vibrating motion. Kira moaned a little, arching her back appreciatively.

"Besides, I don't know why I'm so concerned about your face ... it's not like we could do anything in a position where I could actually see it at this point." Kira ran her hands through Odo to stroke the curve of her swollen belly, and murmured in contentment as Odo spilled past it to fondle the area between her thighs. Kira sighed and surrendered herself to his touch, with a sudden sense of tranquillity. He was still her _tienju-pagh_ , her gift from the Prophets. And his caresses were still filled with love.

Moaning softly with her release, it took a moment for Kira to become aware of the fact that Odo was slipping away from her, sliding off the bed to move to the center of the room, where he formed a column of amber gel. Turning on her side, Kira watched him curiously, her eyes widening as Odo began, unmistakably, to _shift._

It was the longest time she had ever seen him take to change shape, back when he could do so easily and readily — this, on the other hand, seemed to be a careful, painstaking realignment of cells, almost as though he was restructuring each one individually, albeit faster than the eye could see. Kira sat up slowly, barely able to breathe as she watched — reaching out for her combadge on the nightstand, she tapped it and called, "Kira to Bashir!" 

"Major?" Bashir's voice came back alert and concerned. "Are you all right?" 

"I'm fine — but something's going on with Odo. Can you beam to our quarters, now?" 

"I'm on my way." 

There was the hum of the transporter effect in the adjoining living area as Dr. Bashir, good as his word, arrived less than a moment later. Kira belatedly remembered her lack of clothing and gathered the blankets around her, all the while never taking her eyes off her husband. Bashir froze in the doorway, his gaze also riveting on the former constable. He then walked slowly to Kira's side, his tricorder out and scanning Odo the whole way.

"He seems to be shifting," Bashir murmured, "but it's different from any shift I've ever seen — not that I've gotten to observe that many. But something's definitely happening ... we just have to wait and see, Nerys." 

After two hours had passed, Bashir left long enough to advise Captain Sisko of the situation. Kira herself never moved, except to throw on a robe and answer certain demands of her body. She was sitting in almost the same exact position two days later, waiting for Bashir to return from taking a much-needed rest and a shower, trying to focus her attention on a data PADD rather than the nerve-racking spectacle presented by her husband. Tricky as it was, she was managing fairly well, simply because the changes Odo was undergoing were so subtle. She was actually starting to absorb some of the material pertaining to Bajoran/human hybridization and the hybrid's developmental stages when there was a sudden flurry of movement that caught her attention. Kira looked up to see — Odo. 

Still frozen, unmoving, stood the humanoid body she had come to know so well — lean, lithely muscled, his skin pale, with very little body hair. None to speak of on his chest, only a thin line on his lower belly, leading to his -

Kira's eyes widened, and flew to Odo's face, focusing on his nose. _Ridges_ , she thought, _Bajoran ridges, on his nose and on his —_ Then the realization slammed into her. _Sweet Prophets, he's able to take a humanoid shape again. Odo is —_

Odo finally moved, his blue eyes fixing themselves on Kira's face. His hands reached upward and outward, seemingly grasping at the air. He gasped out the words — 

_"I am of Bajor!"_

— before collapsing in what for all shapes and appearances looked like a dead faint. 

Kira hauled herself to her feet, slamming her hand against her combadge as she did so.

"Kira to Bashir! Emergency!" 

The transporter brought Bashir back to Kira's side in less than a heartbeat, his wavy hair still mussed from his recent shower. He knelt quickly next to Odo, his med scanner already out and working.

"Major," Bashir said slowly, "he seems to have just — passed out." 

"Is he all right?" Kira angled herself down to her knees, wondering briefly if she would live to regret it.

"He seems to be — fine." Bashir took an empty ampoule from his medikit, and pressed it against Odo's bare arm. After the clear cylinder filled with blood, he pulled it away and looked at it thoughtfully, shaking it a few times.

The blood stayed red.

"Major," Bashir said slowly, "your husband is a humanoid again." 

"What do you mean?" Kira's gaze remained riveted to Odo, seemingly trying to drink in his face and form with her eyes. 

"I mean that all of his readings are humanoid. Human, although his appearance is somewhat more —" Bashir's glance flickered involuntarily over Odo's body, his face reddening a little as it did so. "— somewhat more Bajoran." 

Odo let out a low moan, and both Kira and Bashir leaned over him anxiously. His blue eyes fluttered open, seeking and fixing themselves to Kira's face — Bashir drew back a little and watched as Kira let her hand slide, unconsciously sensuous, up Odo's side and across his chest until she could cradle his cheek in her hand. Smiling, after one final, quick scan, the doctor got lithely to his feet and slipped from the room. Neither Kira nor Odo ever saw him go.

"Nerys," Odo whispered, his voice hoarse. "Are you all right?" 

Kira laughed at the absurdity of the question. "Me? I'm fine." She reached down and captured his free hand in hers, pressing it to her belly. "So is our son." 

"He's kicking," Odo observed faintly. "Does it hurt?" 

"Uncomfortable, sometimes," Kira confessed. "But right now it feels marvelous." She leaned over as far as her distended abdomen would allow, taking Odo's face in her hands. "Oh, Prophets, I've missed —"

Kira stopped herself before the _you_ could come out, realizing how tactless it was. But Odo gave a little smile, taking one of her hands in his and pressing his lips against the palm. "I know," he murmured. "I've missed you, too. Missed being able to talk to you. To — to share with you, like this." 

"Odo," Kira whispered, "what happened? Do you know?" 

"Of course," Odo said simply, pulling himself into a sitting position. He reached out and put his hands on Kira's shoulders, drawing her gently toward him, resting his forehead against hers. "I just — I'm sorry, Nerys, I couldn't decide." 

"Decide?" Kira drew back so she could look into Odo's eyes, brushing the hair back from Odo's forehead and noticing with amusement that it had returned to the familiar style copied from Dr. Mora. "Decide what, Odo?" 

"The Founders, when they healed my injuries — I couldn't remember at first, I thought I was locked in liquid form — but they gave me the information I needed to change into this." Odo stretched out his arms, looking down at them quizzically. "But they also made it clear that once I did it, I couldn't change back." 

"What?" Kira stared at him with widening eyes. 

"I had to choose between being like them ... and being like you." 

"Oh, Prophets," Kira whispered. Her mouth fell open in a silent 'O'.

"I'm sorry — sorry that it took me so long." Odo stared down at his hands, unable to meet Kira's eyes.

"You chose me?" 

Odo looked up, startled at Kira's strangled question. "Of course I chose you," he said simply. "It was just — hard to let go of the other. I kept hoping that maybe — I or Dr. Bashir or Dax might come up with a way I could go back to being what I was, able to move freely between the two. But I couldn't let it go any longer. I've let it go too long now as it is." 

"Odo, this is your _life_ we're talking about! Of course you didn't take too long! A decision like that —"

"You needed me before now. And I wasn't there for you." 

"I'll be fine." Kira was blunt. "Besides, it's not your fault that we haven't been having sex all along." 

"How could you be expected to adjust to something like that overnight?" Odo shrugged, a sad little smile embellishing his puckish features. "Besides, what you need is this." He took her hand and pressed it against that which lay at the juncture between his thighs, causing Kira to gasp even while her hand moved in an involuntary caress. She managed a wry grin in response.

"We could have managed." Nonetheless, a rush of color flooded her cheeks, and Kira's lips parted with her accelerated breathing. "Dammit, I love you _._ The sex isn't that important." _Damn hormones, don't make a liar of me_ , she pleaded, trying to resist the rush of heat to her groin. Her nipples tightened in blatant defiance of her wishes. It proved her final undoing when Odo lowered his mouth to hers, drinking her in through a slow, sensual kiss.

"I'm taking you to bed, wife," Odo asserted, getting gracefully to his feet and drawing Kira up after him. "We have a lot of catching up to do." 

 

* * *

The final elements of a three-month "Klingon occupation" banished, Odo sat down at the desk in the Security Office and gave a soft, contented sigh. Commander Worf had been a dutiful but unimaginative custodian, meaning that a number of details had disappeared from the daily security routine simply because they never occurred to him -- the Cardassian tailor, Garak, finished with his six month's confinement while Odo had been 'incapacitated', had regaled Odo with a number of Worf's foibles over lunch Still, things were more or less in order, now that the _bat'leth_ hanging over the inside door had been removed and sent on its way with its relieved owner. 

"I have been — most impressed with the order and precision of this operation," Worf had admitted grudgingly, honor-bound to speak the truth. "I did not understand before the magnitude of your duties here — I commend you, Odo." 

Yes, life could be unexpectedly sweet, even for one locked in a solid form.

Odo maintained that belief until he activated his com panel and began to survey the messages that awaited him. Almost at once his blood ran cold as a familiar name assaulted him.

The message was from Central Security on Bajor. It read: 

> "The Dominion has requested return of the prisoner, Chalan Aroya, to Dominion custody, to be tried for crimes committed against the Dominion and its allies. Since the party in question is being held on Bajor due to criminal acts perpetrated on Deep Space Nine against one of its citizens, we defer this matter to your disposition."

"No one here wants to touch it, so we're dropping it back in your lap," Odo silently translated. Then he perused the message's next paragraph, his eyes widening. 

> _"The prisoner has thrown herself on the mercy of the court and requested immunity from extradition, citing fear for her personal safety. We request permission to transfer the prisoner to your jurisdiction, pending your final decision."_

Odo studied those last words for a long time, before finally tapping his combadge. Kira came promptly in answer to his summons, puffing a little at the exertion of her rapid waddle from Ops.

Odo's face was torn between an amused smile and a concerned frown. "You shouldn't be panting," he observed, finally coming down on the side of the scowl. "What does Bashir say?" 

"He says the baby is pressing against my diaphragm and not to worry about it," Kira retorted. "My vascularization patterns are practically normal — still a little congestion, but he doesn't think I'll have any problems come delivery time." Kira gave her husband a saucy grin. "And he said to tell you to keep up the good work." 

Odo responded with a wry grimace. "Why do I get the feeling I should be putting a bed in the storage room here?" 

Kira laughed in return. She lowered herself carefully into one of the chairs that stood before the desk, stretching her feet out in front of her with a sigh. "So, why did want to see me? You sounded like it was important." 

"It might be," Odo said briefly. He transferred the message from his comlink to a dataPADD, and handed the PADD to Kira. "Take a look at that." 

Kira surveyed the information carefully, her brow furrowing. "I don't understand — why doesn't she want to go back? To me it sounds like a Dominion ruse to get her released." 

"As it did to me when I initially read it. But now I'm beginning to wonder — are they concerned with getting her released, or are they concerned about what she might happen to reveal to us? In any case, it seems that Aroya doesn't think she'll receive any kind of favor." 

"Well, she did fail at her assignment," Kira observed. "Maybe the Dominion will want to punish her for that." 

She studied the PADD further, and exclaimed, "The authorities on Bajor want her to come here? Why?" 

"I suspect it isn't so much a matter of them wanting her here, as wanting her 'not there', in case the Dominion decides to send the Jem'Hadar to claim her." Odo nodded solemnly in response to the startled alarm in Kira's eyes. "I have to admit, I do want to speak to her before we decide whether or not to extradite her." To Kira's questioning look he added, "I want to ask her some questions — I need to understand why she acted the way she did. The Founders had already enacted their sentence on me — why would they think it necessary to harm you? To punish me further? In some ways they're the ones who made it possible for you and me to be together in the first place — why would they move against you?" 

"How about pure spite?" Kira bit off the words. "They wanted me _and_ our baby dead, Odo — humanoids, 'solids', we're just like insects to them. Crushing the life out of us — it doesn't mean any more to them than swatting a bug." 

"Still, Chalan Aroya was carefully prepared to be their spider," Odo mused. "And I for one would be very interested to know why she's so convinced that they mean to step on her now." 

 

* * *

"You're doing splendidly, Major." Dr. Bashir took a final look at the biobed's scanners before nodding to Kira that she could get down. She did so gingerly, rubbing her belly and giving the doctor a resentful glare.

"You always wake him up," she complained. "What did I ever do to you?" 

Bashir chuckled, but avoided the question. "You're doing just fine," he reiterated. "Looks like you have about a week to go — think you're ready for it, Constable?" The doctor turned to smile at Odo, hovering anxiously nearby.

Odo harumphed. "I don't think it matters if I'm ready or not, the important thing is that Nerys be ready." He reached out and took his wife's hand. "And I believe that she is." 

"I _have_ been," Kira agreed, squeezing the offered hand. "I want him out of there!" 

"Well, just so you're ready for your share in the action, Odo," Bashir observed, amused. Odo stared at him, suddenly wary.

" _My_ share?" 

"Haven't you told him yet, Major?" Bashir chuckled with sudden glee.

"Told me what?" 

"Julian, that's hardly universal any more." Kira scowled at the young doctor. 

"What isn't universal? What haven't you told me, Nerys?" 

The look Kira directed at Bashir went from annoyed to ferocious. Unmoved, Bashir continued smoothly, "Traditionally, a Bajoran couple share in the birthing process through the use of a _pi'ynt_."

Odo considered the term, which he associated with an oddly-shaped chair he had seen in the O'Briens' quarters, a gift which the couple had received from Bashir prior to the birth of Kyoshi. Keiko had laughed until she cried, and Chief O'Brien had made a solemn pronouncement that no one would catch him sitting in a thing like that. Kira had merely looked — embarrassed and slightly wistful.

_This is something important to Nerys, no matter what she says._ Registering this new awareness, Odo gave Bashir his solemn attention. "That's a chair, isn't it? The chief and Mrs. O'Brien have one that you gave to them." 

"That's right ... you were there, weren't you?" Bashir smiled. "A _pi'ynt_ is a Bajoran labor-chair. Traditionally, it's the husband who sits in the chair, with the wife more or less in his lap. Some modernists have added a neural link between the couple, so that the husband can actually share the wife's physical sensations, but I don't think that's desirable — he should be able to encourage her, not be bellowing in pain himself. Besides, most men don't take it nearly as well as their wives." 

Odo considered this proposition seriously, while Kira muttered, "Like I said, it's hardly universal. You don't have to worry about it, Odo." 

"But I would like to hold you while you give birth, Nerys" Odo replied softly. "It's as close to being a true Bajoran as I may ever come." 

Kira looked at her husband with widening eyes. Speechless, she buried her face against his shoulder.

"Hormones," Bashir responded confidently to Odo's nonplused stare. "She'll be fine — and I'll go ahead and order you a chair." 

"There's no need." This muffled observation came from Kira. "I still have my mother's — on Bajor." 

"Oh, well, then, that's perfect." Bashir gave his sunniest smile. "Did she use it when she had you?" 

"Me and both my brothers." Still muffled against Odo, the words actually came out more like, "Me an' bode my brudders." Which did not keep the former changeling from understanding.

He had chosen wisely. 

 

* * *

It was late at night, and the sleeping Kira had succeeded in driving Odo out of bed — not intentionally, but by her usual thrashing in discomfort. Now she lay partially on her side, partially on her back, various pillows propping her here and there ... Odo, sitting at the bedroom comlink, looked over at his restless wife and gave a rueful smile.

_At least while I was still a liquid I was able to help her sleep better. I may not have been the best husband, but I made a damned fine mattress pad._

The _pi'ynt_ chair, which Kira had immediately requested from its storage place with Lupaza, stood in the corner, awaiting duty. _Any day now_ ... 

They had practiced sitting together in the chair a few times, accompanied by more than a few giggles on Kira's part. They had even made love in it once, rather awkwardly, with Kira assuring her husband that this was also very traditional. Odo, normally not fond of any position that involved making love to his wife without seeing her face, had to admit that Kira was probably not lying to him. Bajorans had a relentless emphasis on pair-bonding, built into their very genetic structure, and most obvious in the way a Bajoran husband and wife developed such a symbiotic relationship during pregnancy. 

Except in sharing sleeping space, of course. Then a Bajoran woman — or at least Odo's Bajoran woman — looked out for Number One.

Odo gave Kira one final smile before turning his attention to the data spilling out across his console. It was a detailed transcript of Chalan Aroya's request for asylum, and the more he read of it, the surer Odo became ... while she told next to nothing about her reasons, Aroya's fear was genuine. 

Genuine and undefined ... Odo pursed his lips, frowning. _There's no way to justify granting a request for asylum without some specific reasons, and good ones. Why won't she tell the authorities? Will she be willing to tell me when she's brought here to the station? Because there's no way I can grant her request unless she does._

Employing a variety of delaying tactics with the Dominion representative who had come to present the Founders' request for extradition — a rather nervous Vorta escorted by two bored and irritated Jem'Hadar — Odo had given the end of the month as the date when he would reach a decision. He had then arranged for Aroya herself to be brought to the station a week prior to that — which presumably put him and Kira several days past her pending delivery. Odo wanted nothing to distract him from that all important event.

_My son_... Odo was barely able to think the words, much less say them aloud. Even with the evidence before him, so prominently displayed in his wife's swollen belly, he couldn't quite comprehend what this wonderful thing could have to do with _him_. He felt no sense of ownership, only a sense of awe, and of grave responsibility. In that sense the child was his, something he felt duty bound to protect. Further than that he didn't dare contemplate. Too many things had been snatched away for Odo to have any faith in permanence.

"Oh, no ... did I run you off again?" 

Odo turned his attention back to the bed at Kira's sleepy murmur. He unfolded his long legs gracefully and went to sit at her side, reaching out to claim her hand in his.

"I'm sorry," Kira said, letting her fingers lace with his. "You haven't gotten to sleep through the night this week, have you?" 

"That's all right. I've never really gotten into the habit of sleeping such long hours, anyway." 

"Still, you should be resting up." 

"So everyone keeps telling me." 

Kira smiled lovingly in response, drawing Odo's hand to rest against her abdomen. Odo spread his fingers, concentrating intently. A moment later he chuckled.

"Parents are supposed to see great things for their children. With a punch like that, all I can envision is a chain of barroom brawls at Quark's." 

"Tell me about it!" Kira let out a cross between a laugh and a moan. Then her gaze grew soft. "Just in case I haven't told you this yet, I think you're going to make a great father." 

"I'll do my best." Odo shrugged, honestly bewildered. "I have no real idea what that means ... it's so far removed from anything I ever expected to experience." 

"Well, I thought I'd give you something to start out with, to help you develop one of the concepts." Kira reached under her pillow, and pulled out a small, red box. "Lupaza was keeping this on Bajor for me along with the chair. I want you to have it." 

"What is it?" Odo was still unaccustomed to presents.

"Open it." 

Odo pried open the box warily. Fingers moving as delicately as a caress, he reached in to remove a Bajoran earring, gleaming in the dim light. He studied it for several moments, examining it with the fingers of one hand as it rested in the palm of the other, before giving Kira a wondering look.

"It looks like yours." 

"More or less," Kira agreed. "Only this --" she indicated an extra scrap of chain finished in a small bob "-- means that you're male. This is what a male Kira wears. I thought that maybe, since you don't have a clan of your own ..." 

Odo silenced the remainder of her explanation with a kiss. "I would be honored to take your family's name, Nerys." 

"I actually can't think of you as anything but Odo," Kira confessed. "But the baby ..." 

Odo smiled serenely. "He'll have to get his own earring, though. This one's mine now." 

Kira's smile was a burst of radiance across her face, even while her eyes filled. "I'm glad you like it. It belonged to my father." 

Quick to forestall any tears, Odo held out the earring. "How do I put it on? Will you help me?" 

"Of course." Kira took the piece of jewelry and affixed it carefully to Odo's right ear. "It's a special electromagnet in this little flat thing here — it goes right through your earlobe and holds the earring. Some of the earrings are very old, of course, they used to just have a post going through the ear ... this was my father's first, and his father's before that." 

"That tingles," Odo commented, as Kira let her hands fall and examined her handiwork.

"Really?" Kira looked faintly surprised. "It must be because you're human — and I thought that Bajorans had the most sensitive ears in the quadrant!" 

"In some ways they do," Odo assured her, moving closer so he could nuzzle one of hers. Kira sighed, capturing Odo's hand and drawing it up her body to curve against her breast.

"I don't know why, but I'm so restless tonight ... make love to me, Odo. Please." 

"That's just what I had in mind." Odo pulled off his robe and lay down on his back next to Kira, patting his thighs enticingly. "Of course, our options are limited now, but if you sit here I think we can manage." 

Straddling her husband's hips, Kira 'rode' him with unprecedented ferocity, her very words incendiary. "Harder ... no, I want you _in_ me ... _seleyl'a ti_ ... no, harder!" 

"Nerys, I don't want to hurt you." Somehow, against all odds, Odo was able to keep his head together enough to choke out some coherent words. 

"No, no ... you won't, this is right ... Odo, _seleyl'a ti kes s'palma!_ "

_Like I mean it?_ Odo grinned a little at Kira's choice of words, and did his best to oblige. Kira screamed sharply as her climax wracked her body, followed quickly by Odo's own ... and then gasped as a warm flood of liquid spilled from between her parted thighs to cascade over Odo and drench the bed beneath them.

"Oh, for the Prophet's — _Nerys!"_ Odo somehow had Kira off him and in a reclining position and himself wrapped in a robe before Kira herself was entirely sure what had happened. Grabbing a combadge from the nightstand — his or Kira's, he wasn't sure which — he activated it and exclaimed, "Odo to Bashir! Emergency!" 

"Odo? What's wrong?" To his credit, Bashir gave no evidence that he had been dreaming of a fascinating encounter with two dabo girls only seconds before. 

"Kira, she ..." Odo stared at his wife, as all rational command of the situation abruptly fled.

Kira, fortunately, was much more relaxed, gesturing for Odo to hand her the combadge. "I'm sorry we woke you, Julian. My water just broke, that's all." 

"Ah." Bashir was also maddeningly calm. "Well, it sounds like you'll need me later, at any rate. Any contractions yet?" 

"No, not — ow!" Kira's face suddenly twitched while Odo watched her, alarmed. "Sorry, make that one. But don't ask me how far apart they are yet." 

"Well, I still think I might go ahead and get a coffee at the Replimat, wake up a bit ... when the contractions are, oh, ten minutes apart, why don't you stroll over to the Infirmary so I can take a look at how it's going?" A distinct chuckle came lilting over the comlink. "And tell Odo that I thank him for taking care of things so nicely, although next time I would appreciate it if he'd do it at a somewhat more reasonable hour. Bashir out." 

Laughing, Kira laid aside the combadge and struggled to sit up. Moving quickly to help her, Odo asked, bewildered, "What was Bashir thanking me for? I don't understand." 

"Odo!" Kira shook her head, mildly vexed. "I thought you had done the reading on all this!" 

"I did!" Odo assured her, aggrieved. "I borrowed a book from Chief O'Brien." 

"Did he say when he read it?" 

"I believe it was when Keiko was carrying Molly." 

"Well, he would have done better to lend you the book Keiko read when I was carrying Kyoshi. Odo, Keiko is human." 

"Well, so am I, now." 

"Yes, but _I'm_ not!" Kira dimpled in amusement. "The sac holding the amniotic fluid is a lot tougher on a Bajoran than it is on a human. There are, generally speaking, two things that cause it to break — the less common one is when the doctor has to do it." 

Odo stared at her, dumbfounded, as comprehension dawned. "So when we ... that's how it ..." 

"Well, I did say _seleyl'a ti kes s'palma_." Kira grinned with a total lack of repentance. Then a flicker of pain crossed her face. "Ow... how long was that?" 

"What?" 

"How long since my last contraction ..." Kira laughed, shaking her head. "I've never seen you so — so inefficient, Odo. It's kind of refreshing." 

Stung at the accusation of inefficiency, Odo proceeded to make efficient amends. "Computer, time elapsed since last communications link between Major Kira Nerys and Dr. Julian Bashir." 

_"Eight minutes, twenty-three seconds."_

"Guess it's going to go faster this time," Kira observed. "Odo, would you get me my _fleeza?_ " 

" _Fleeza ... fleeza ..._ " Odo started rummaging in the closet.

"You know, it's that long, thick, fluffy thing I wear when I feel cold." 

"I _know_ what a _fleeza_ is, Nerys, I did live on Bajor quite a few years." Odo finally extracted the requested garment and helped Kira to pull it on over her head. "What else do you want?" 

"Just my slippers ... underwear's pretty pointless right now." 

Odo made sure each beloved foot was carefully shod before scrambling into shirt and trousers of his own, and slipping into a pair of clogs. He then turned determinedly to the task of getting his wife safely to the Infirmary. Kira chuckled when she saw his grim look.

"Odo, I've done this before. I'm fine. The walk will do me good." 

Such reassurances notwithstanding, it was still the longest journey Odo had ever taken in his life, his trips to the Gamma quadrant and one particularly grisly jaunt down the Promenade not excluded. Kira, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm, even when flashes of pain would suffuse her face. 

Odo, not to be berated for forgetting his duty again, dutifully noted the time between each contraction down to the second. As they neared the end of the turbolift ride to the Promenade, he exclaimed, alarmed, "They're only four minutes apart now!" 

Kira, just coming out of one, took a deep breath before replying. "Then I guess we should stop by the Replimat and get Julian, don't you?" 

Bashir, however, already awaited them in the Infirmary, eyes bright and alert, a relaxed smile on his face. "I thought you might be right along," he observed, "considering how efficient you were about popping out Kyoshi." 

"You know how I hate to waste time," Kira joked. 

"Let me just take a quick look, and then you can get settled 'in position', as it were — I took the liberty of having your chair beamed here, and I've got it all set up in the back room." 

Kira froze at the mention of the back room, and Bashir belatedly remembered the last hours she had spent there. 

"Oh, Major ... I'm sorry! I didn't think — let me see, I can set it up in the Quarantine room instead, there's no one in quarantine right now — well, get up on the table, and I'll beam your chair into the other room." 

Bashir did a quick scan and a brief but thorough physical exam, nodding in satisfaction. "The baby seems to be lined up splendidly, Nerys ... you should be just fine. Although I must say, he's a bit of a bruiser ... well, you two, let's get you ready. Odo, you'll want to throw on a pair of pajamas, too — what you're wearing is too heavy, and besides, Nerys will be sweating and bleeding all over you. Nerys, do you want a smock of some kind, or do you want to dispense with it this time?" 

Kira grinned. "Just be sure there's a double security override on the door and someone keeping an eye on Quark, and I'll do this one like a Bajoran." She eyed Odo speculatively. "I don't suppose you'd care to join me." 

"Of course I'll join you," Odo agreed automatically, without having any idea what he was promising. "Doctor, have you done other deliveries like this?" He followed on Bashir's heels as he assisted Kira off the table and led her into the Quarantine Room.

"Are you asking me if I know what I'm doing?" Bashir asked, amused. "Well, seeing that I've been stationed on a Bajoran space station for four years now, delivered seventeen Bajoran babies, and had at least thirteen of those adhere strictly to tradition ... yes. I think I know what I'm doing." His brown eyes danced with mischief. "So, while I check over my instruments, you can help Nerys take her robe off and get undressed yourself. I put a step-stool under the chair, so you should be able to get into it without any difficulty, and then I'll help Nerys climb up into your lap." 

"All right." Odo pulled his shirt off while looking around furtively for the promised pajamas. Kira gave him a little smile, touching her hand to his cheek. 

"Odo, Bajoran men don't wear anything when they're in the _pi'ynt_ chair with their wives. It's supposed to be a way of — sharing the naked vulnerability of giving birth. You don't have to do it, though. I'll understand." 

Despite the sheer terror that clutched him, Odo said gruffly, "Nonsense. Besides, it isn't like you both haven't seen me that way before." Odo undressed with swift determination, before gently extracting Kira from her _fleeza_. He then took a deep breath and used the step-stool to gingerly situate himself in the _pi'ynt_ , carefully establishing his balance on the shallow seat. A moment later, Bashir was helping Kira up into his arms.

All things considered, it struck Odo as absurd how comforting Kira's bare back felt against his chest. Her whole body felt comfortable actually, her somewhat broader hips pressing back into his, her legs and knees curving to fit against his own lower limbs — Odo wrapped his arms around Kira, fitting them into the narrow space between her breasts and belly. He was startled to feel the muscles in Kira's abdomen ripple where he was touching them ... he looked out over Kira's shoulder at Bashir, who was surveying the tableau Odo imagined he and Kira presented with a maddeningly smug, contented look. 

"Are you both comfortable?" Bashir asked with relentless cheer. "Did you practice sitting like this before now?" 

"Almost like this," Kira agreed. Odo could feel her slight chuckle, mirrored by one from Bashir.

"Yes, I've had a number of Bajoran fathers tell me how those practice sessions usually end up. Here, I'd like to have a _little_ technology going for me ..." Bashir affixed two small metal objects to Kira's abdomen. "These will monitor the baby's activities, in case there are any changes ... do you want a neural blocker for the pain, Nerys?" 

"I didn't really need one last time. Why don't we wait and see?" 

"That sounds like an excellent idea ... I don't like interfering with a healthy natural process if I can help it. How about you, Odo?" 

"What?" Odo was startled at being addressed.

"I don't know ... you just look like you could use a bit of a neural blocker yourself ... it's that rather glassy-eyed stare of yours, I expect." Bashir grinned cheekily. "Don't worry, if I have to intervene to widen anything, I'll make sure the laser-scalpel doesn't slip." 

When he looked back on it later, Odo had to admit that the time that followed was one of the most memorable and satisfying in his entire life. He also was quick to realize that this was only true with the benefit of hindsight, as at first it didn't seem satisfying at all.

Kira approached the problem with her usual admirable determination ... she panted or took deep breaths when ordered, and resisted pushing at all costs, no matter how great the temptation. She also didn't hesitate to yell when the pain became more severe, treating both Odo and Bashir to some of the more colorful examples of Bajoran invective. Bashir was largely uncomprehending, while Odo maintained a respectful silence — he had locked up ravening drunks who didn't command as vivid a vocabulary as did Kira Nerys when her labor pains reached their height. While a small objective corner of his mind suggested that it was only the pain talking, another part of Odo was quite convinced that Kira would never let him touch her again as long as she lived.

"What's taking so long?" Kira finally wailed. "Kyoshi didn't take half this long!" 

"Kyoshi," Bashir expounded from where he crouched to keep better tabs on current activity, "weighed eight pounds. This little fellow is more like twelve." 

"Twelve? No one in my family has ever been that big!" This was followed by a number of deprecations on the Founders and their interpretation of human genetics. Bashir frowned, stepping back to look into Kira's face. 

"Nerys, this has gone long enough. I need to widen things up a bit down there or you'll never get him out. And for that you have to let me block the pain." 

"Why didn't you insist half an hour ago?" Kira gasped. Odo dropped a anxious kiss on her shoulder, eyes riveted on Bashir as the doctor affixed a small device to Kira's head. Kira sighed, and Odo could feel her entire body sag against his in the extremity of her relief.

"None of that," Bashir warned. "You still have work to do here — now, I'm about to make an incision - widen the vaginal opening - and when I tell you to, I want you to bear down and push for all you're worth, understand?" 

"I understand." Kira nodded solemnly. Odo tightened his arms around her comfortingly as she exclaimed, in sudden dismay, "Odo! The things I said to you ... I'm sorry!" 

"It's all right. You're doing just fine." Odo could only assume this was true, since Bashir didn't look overly concerned. Meanwhile, the end of Kira's pain, coupled with her hot, sweat-slicked skin pressed against his, was having what in Odo's mind was the most unfortunate, even ludicrous effect. Kira, largely desensitized from the waist down, was unaware, but Bashir let out a sudden grin and caught Kira by the hips, angling her away from Odo's body for a moment. 

"Just shifting you a bit, Major," Bashir murmured to Kira's questioning look. "The constable has something he's trying to get out of my way — most effectively, too." He let Kira slide back into her position against Odo, and Odo found the something in question neatly sandwiched against Kira's left buttock, with no possibility of escape. Kira, concentrating on the task that still awaited her, accepted the doctor's explanation without question. Bashir made a few subtle passes with a laser scalpel, and then commanded, "All right, Nerys — _push!_ And don't stop pushing until I tell you to!" 

A moment later, Bashir was handing Odo and Kira's son into Kira's arms. All pain, confusion, embarrassing sensations and past discomfort were forgotten in the presence of one of life's major miracles.

"Prophets," Odo whispered, daring to let one of his own hands caress the bloody, screaming infant. "He's _real_."

"He's absolutely real," Bashir agreed happily. "Looks like he has your nose, Nerys — and if he grows into his potential, he's going to make someone _very_ happy someday." Odo blushed harder than Kira at this implication, and Bashir laughed in delight. There was nothing he enjoyed about his chosen profession quite as much as he did delivering babies. "I need to get you cleaned up now, Nerys, and take care of all the little extras ... Odo, I want you to take this young fellow and go into that sonic shower right over there. Set it for a very fine, gentle pulse, and hold this pad over his umbilicus. There's some lotion in there that you can use if anything needs some extra help coming off." 

Before Odo could do more than sputter in protest, Bashir had helped Kira to hand Odo the baby and array herself on an anti-grav stretcher. After throwing a sheet on her, Bashir steered Kira into the Infirmary proper, Kira giving Odo one final, encouraging smile as she was taken out. Odo stepped down carefully to do as he was told, cradling the baby against his chest with as much care as he might a piece of Elgarian eggshell-crystal. The baby had stopped screaming in protest at this new, large, light, noisy world, and now made soft noises that fell like blows on the last mistrusting, wary walls of Odo's heart.

"Do you like showers?" Odo asked, feeling slightly absurd, but convinced that he ought to say something. "Your mother and I can have water in ours ... much nicer than this, although I imagine this is best for you now." Odo carefully adjusted the shower settings to Bashir's specifications before finally activating the device. 

The baby chirped in what Odo took to be satisfaction as the blood and sweat of his entrance into the world were washed away in the shower's gentle vibrations ... Odo investigated each and every nook and fold and dabbed on a wealth of the recommended lotion wherever it seemed that the shower might miss. He haphazardly made sure that his own body was relatively clean as well before finally turning off the controls and carrying the baby back out into the quarantine room. 

Bashir had finally provided the blue pajamas he had promised Odo a forever ago, as well as a receiving blanket and a large, shallow container that he had thoughtfully labeled, _'Yes, you can put him here while you dress.'_ Odo proceeded to do so, opting for his own trousers and tunic rather than the Infirmary issue, but never had clothing been put on quite so rapidly as it was then. He then reclaimed the baby from where it was murmuring discontentedly in the impromptu bassinet, and went out into the Infirmary's small in-patient area to check on Kira, neatly tucked into a biobed. 

Tired but once again tidy, Kira greeted Odo with a contented smile, her eyes lingering lovingly on his face before affixing themselves to the bundle he carried. Odo handed the baby carefully into his mother's arms. 

"Oh, he's so beautiful," Kira whispered, unabashed tears rolling down her face. "He's the best thing I've ever had a part in, Odo — I'm like you, I can hardly believe he's real." She pulled aside the blue blanket that Bashir had left for the baby's use, beginning a careful examination of each finger and toe. "You know," Kira mused, "he looks like you." 

"I hope not!" Odo protested automatically. "It would be nice if he took after his good-looking parent." 

"I think you're both beautiful," Kira said simply. "But he has your coloring, and I think he's going to have your hands." She lifted the tiny fist that had curled around her finger to her lips, while Odo stared at her, spellbound by her sudden, ravishing loveliness. 

"Nerys," he said simply, " _l'hanya ti_." 

"I know," Kira whispered. " _l'hanya ti du, l'meytahl_."

Odo was leaning over the bed, kissing Kira with all the passion that was in him, when a small, discreet cough caused him to draw away slowly. Dr. Bashir watched them from the doorway, a smile playing with the corners of his mouth. 

"Young fellow," Bashir commented, addressing himself to the baby in Kira's arms, "I do think they're already planning to make you a sister. Although I do think they'd better put it off for just a few weeks." He chuckled at Odo and Kira's looks of protest. "Of course, they may like being able to press their tummies together again so much that they'll postpone that for a while — meantime, I think now that you've bonded with your father, you need to spend some special quality time with your mother as well. Nerys, would you like to go ahead and try nursing him?" 

Kira nodded slowly, pulling the sheet away from her breasts. Catching her scent, the baby had no problem at all with the concept presented, attaching himself to her offered nipple with the vigor and tenacity of a leech. Kira chuckled.

"See, Odo?" she said softly, "he does take after you." 

Odo did an indignant double-take, while Bashir started laughing quietly. Then he made the unexpected statement, "I need to run down to Quark's for a moment ... I'll be back by the time you're ready to put him to bed, and then we can talk about diapers, Odo. I don't suppose you've ever diapered a baby?" 

"No, but I've observed." Odo felt a bit stung at the accusation of ill-preparedness. The past few hours had already held more surprises that he ever hoped to encounter ... "I can't imagine that it's _that_ difficult." 

Kira gave a laugh that could only be described as evil, but Bashir took pity on the tormented constable. "No, not at all, once you learn the trick of it — you'll be a pro within the week. Now, if you'll excuse me ..." 

"Julian," Kira asked curiously, "why do you need to go to Quark's? Is someone hurt?" 

"No, just a group waiting to 'wet the baby's head', as some of us earthers say. And Quark ... let's just say I promised to provide him with some data when it became available." 

Kira rolled her eyes. "Time, date, and weight, right?" 

"Of course." 

Bashir smiled urbanely, before slipping from the room. Odo added dryly, "Plus a thousand other little details, no doubt." 

"Prophets, I can't imagine." 

"I can." Odo sighed, shrugging in resignation.

They both turned their attention back to the baby, already sleeping against Kira's breast. Kira kissed his head, and gently removed the nipple from his mouth. "So," she said softly, "I guess we can't put it off any longer." 

"What?" Odo glanced up at her, puzzled.

"His name. He needs a name." 

"Yes ... of course." Odo thought about the issue dutifully, but drew his usual blank. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Nerys. What can you expect of someone named 'unknown substance'?" 

Kira caught the underlying bitterness, and began to understand how out of his depth Odo was feeling. "Well," she mused, her voice gentle, "I expect him to be a wonderful father to our baby." 

"I can't imagine what you're basing your hopes on." Odo shook his head.

"I guess I'm basing them on what a wonderful lover he's been to me. And what a good friend." 

Odo looked down into Kira's eyes, his love for her so strong that it felt like pain. "I'll do the best that I can — I promise you that." It was a solemn vow. 

"That's all any of us can do, Odo." Kira smiled gently. "Now, let's name him. I had an idea ..." 

"What?" Odo looked at her hopefully.

"Nalas. Kira Nalas." 

Odo smiled. "After Li Nalas?" 

"Partially, but mostly after my brother. He was Nalas, too." 

"I never knew that. I'm sorry." 

"No reason to be. I just ... I don't know, I just don't talk much about the past. But I need to start. I need to start sharing my history ... because it's his history, too." She kissed the baby's head again, and then barely managed to stifle her own yawn. "I'm sorry, Odo, I'm just so tired." 

"You ought to be tired," Odo observed gruffly. "You've done some hard work tonight." 

"You've worked pretty hard yourself. Will you take him, then, until Bashir gets back?" 

"Of course." Odo gathered the sleeping baby in his arms, and seated himself in an armchair close to Kira's bed. Kira let her hand trail over the edge of the bed, resting gently against Odo's arm, even while her eyelids drooped and her lower lip sagged as she tumbled into slumber.

Odo cuddled the baby securely in the crook of his arm, and let his own erect posture sag against the back of the chair. _Nerys is right, of course ... this has been quite a day ..._

So it was that Bashir, returning only two minutes later, found all three of his "patients" sound asleep. 

 

* * *

Both Kira and baby Nalas were allowed to go home the next day by a doctor pleased with their general health and fitness. Odo, true to form, returned doggedly to work, although not without qualms at the thought of leaving his family to fend for itself. Kira finally had to shove him out the door, laughing.

"Odo! I'm fine! The baby is as healthy as a — what was it Julian said? A horse, whatever that is ... now go to your office, do what you need to do, and then you can come home! Honestly!" 

Further allaying his fears that Kira would somehow collapse and expire from unforeseen complications during his absence was the figure of Dax, hurrying toward him with her arms laden as he walked reluctantly down the corridor from Level Eleven of the Habitat Ring. The trill carried, among other things, a blue-and-red quilt, a large stuffed kivik, and some strange contraption made of wires and brightly-hued dangles ... Odo stopped and nodded in greeting.

"Now, what makes me think that you're on your way to Kira's and my quarters?" 

"Odo!" Beaming, Dax leaned over her armload of assorted baby paraphernalia to kiss Odo loudly on the cheek. Her smile grew compassionate. "You look tired ... why aren't you taking the day off?" 

"I've barely started being back 'on' again," Odo observed. He then conceded, with an ease that he might not have affected as early as a day before, "I'll make sure everything's in order, check the day's reports, coordinate activities with my deputies, and then I'll come home. Trust me," he concluded, "there's nowhere I'd rather be than right back there." He nodded in the direction from which he had come.

"Odo!" Dax's eyes were wide with delight. "You sound so - contented." 

"I am," Odo said simply. "Why wouldn't I be?" 

"Well ..." Dax considered her words, and decided to be blunt. "Because you're not a changeling any more." 

Odo considered her words carefully, and Dax found it somehow reassuring that he did not immediately dismiss them. Finally he said, "if I could have what I had, and still have what I have now, I would. But if my choice is between that and this ... then this is what I choose. I will not regret it - I can't regret it. How could I?" Odo gave a gentle smile. "My link here has proven far more reliable than anything I ever found in the Gamma quadrant." His eyes blazed with sudden, breathtaking awe. "I have a _son_. Nalas wouldn't exist if it weren't for me having been made into a human. Contented? Dax, I'm _ecstatic_."

"You know, I think you are." Dax gave a slow grin. "You named him Nalas?" 

"After Kira's brother." Dax watched in amusement as Odo fought back the radiant but undignified smile that kept threatening to split his face. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Dax, I have a few things I need to get done so I can come back home with a clear conscience." 

Odo nodded in a resumption of his usual grave dignity, before continuing to the turbolift that would take him to the Promenade. Striding determinedly down the corridor, he was startled to find half a dozen of his Bajoran deputies awaiting him outside his office. They greeted him with a round of light, sincere applause, palms pattering against backs of hands. 

"What — ?" 

"Congratulations, Security Chief Odo." One of his deputies, a round-faced, sweet-voiced woman named Linur Apell, held out a flat, square package.

"I don't understand." Odo took the offering with a puzzled frown. "You already gave us something, at that strange party Keiko had for us ... what was it called? A baby bath?" 

Most of the Bajorans wore equally blank expressions, but tall and lanky Rejan Tinas had married a human federation officer the first year that the Federation presence had been established on the station, and now had two children of his own. He smiled and said, "Shower. A baby shower." 

"Yes, that. The group of you gave us something then." 

"Yes, but that was mostly for the baby," Linur explained. "We wanted to give something to _you._ " 

"I — thank you." Obviously at a loss, Odo bought himself some time by opening the doors to Security and stepping inside. The deputies followed him expectantly, watching him with eager eyes as he sat down at his desk and finally began to open his gift. 

"Rejan's hobby is old-style flat image capture," Linur went on the explain. 

"Photography is what the humans call it — my wife got me hooked a couple of years ago. I was taking pictures around the station one day, and I caught that shot of you and major sitting together in the Replimat. It turned out so well that I blew up the head-shot and came up with that." 

Odo was too mesmerized with what the package contained to be concerned at the seemingly violent content of his deputy's language. The framed print showed him and Kira looking at each other, eyes utterly rapt and smiles tinged with the laughter of pure joy ... Odo set the picture into careful position on his desk, angled where he could see it whenever he looked up. He had never had a desk ornament before, and had scorned prior suggestions. This one he accepted without a murmur.

"Thank you," he said simply. "It's lovely." 

"Maybe when the baby's a bit older, I can do one of all of you," Rejan suggested. 

"I'd like that," Odo said instantly. His beneficiaries exchanged pleased smiles, and murmured their excuses to depart. Odo continued to stare, bemused, at the image of himself and Kira for several moments, until he was interrupted by the sharp beep of his combadge.

"Ops to Odo." The voice belonged to Chief O'Brien.

Feeling possibly more effusive than he ever had in his life, Odo forced himself to his usual level of crisp professionalism. "Chief, what can I do for you?" 

"The Bajoran security vessel _Lormach_ is requesting permission to dock. They say they're here to transfer Chalan Aroya into station custody." 

Odo focused sharply out of his blissful daze. "They're two days early. Do they say — never mind, Chief. Please clear them for docking, and I'll arrange for a security detail to escort them here." 

Even while he made the arrangements he had described, Odo felt sensations similar to a scream ripping their way along the length of his spine. This woman had tried to destroy everything he held dear. Why did he have the task of dealing with her now?

_Because it's my job._ Another voice then added, _but not today. There's nothing that says you have to deal with her today. Not on your son's birthday._

Odo was standing, waiting, when Aroya was escorted in by six security guards — four of his and two from the Bajoran ship. Odo nodded gravely, his investigator's skills registering the taut, tense lines of Aroya's face, the shadows beneath her eyes — and the terror within them.

_She's scared of something, all right, and I don't flatter myself that it's me. But I don't want to hear about it now._ Odo nodded decisively to his deputies. "Please escort the prisoner to a holding cell," he said briefly, ignoring the look of sudden pleading in Aroya's eyes. "I'll question her later." He eyed the superior of the two officers who had provided the escort from Bajor. "Now, would you mind telling me why you decided to transfer the prisoner two days early, and without consulting me?" 

The security officer, a former resistance fighter, needed more than an irritated former changeling to cow him. "There was an attempt on her life last night, and it was determined that we could no longer guarantee her safety on Bajor. We sent you a subspace message before we left, but when we didn't hear from you for two hours we decided not to wait for a reply." 

Odo winced, imagining that said communication was still waiting for him stored somewhere in his incoming message logs. "My wife and I had our first child last night," Odo said briefly. "I'm afraid I missed getting your message, Officer ..." 

"Lieutenant Greel. Congratulations, sir." The formalities out of the way, Lieutenant Greel returned to the business at hand. "A pair of Flaxians attempted to assassinate the prisoner. We decided that it wouldn't be safe not to move her, and since she was already scheduled to be brought here, it seemed pointless to just take her to another location on Bajor." 

"A _pair_ of Flaxians." Odo considered the implications. Flaxians rarely worked in tandem, and when they did they commanded an incredibly high price. It was also nearly unheard of for such a pairing to fail.

"How did you manage to stop them?" 

"We received an anonymous tip, and decided to follow up on it. Good thing we did ... the explosive device they were planning to use would have taken out not only the entire detention facility, but everything else in a two kilometer radius." 

"And the Flaxians — did they tell you anything?" Seating himself in his desk chair, Odo nodded that Lieutenant Greel and his associate should take the ones opposite him. Greel smiled, taking mercy on his nervous junior.

"There's a bar here ... Quark's. Go check out the synthale, why don't you?" Greel smiled and shook his head as the young officer eagerly took him up on his suggestion. "Good kid ... they all had to start with stuff like this too early in life." 

"What about the Flaxians?" Odo insisted gently.

"Dead," Greel said briefly, "before we got to them." 

"What? Then who --?"

"We don't have any names." Greel paused, seemingly to study his fingernails. "But the genetic traces on the bodies indicated that the killers were Jem'Hadar." 

"Jem'Hadar ..." Odo straightened slowly in his chair. 

"That's right." Greel nodded. "They may not want their hand to show, at least not on the surface of things, but the Dominion wants that woman dead. And they want her dead _badly_." 

 

* * *

The minimum of tasks he had set for himself accomplished, and promises made to himself to access the remainder from his home computer terminal later in the evening, Odo closed down all the open screens on his desk and left his office, ordering the lights to dim as he exited. The Promenade was lively with late afternoon shoppers and early evening diners ... Odo realized, startled, that he had worked through lunch with neither a break nor any concept of the hours flying by. Hastening his step, he snagged the first turbolift he could and made his way back to the Habitat ring, back to the place his heart had never left, no matter how his brain had been otherwise involved.

He found Kira sitting up in bed, a wealth of pillows supporting her back while she held their son in her arms. Nalas' eyes were closed in single-minded concentration as he nursed assiduously at his mother's breast.

"Well, hello!" Kira's voice was low and soft as she greeted her husband, her laughing eyes warm. "I was starting to wonder if you'd forgotten us." 

"I'm sorry," Odo murmured, kissing her forehead before seating himself carefully at her side. He studied the baby in her arms with a look of absolute wonder. "Such admirable determination," he whispered, reaching out a forefinger to touch the baby's cheek.

"He's working on the second one, so he should be going back to sleep any minute now," Kira observed. Sure enough, the small mouth soon relaxed and stilled, and Kira was able to carefully extract her nipple, shifting the sleepy baby to her shoulder and patting his tiny back gently. Satisfied at last that her son's hunger was sated and all of his other needs cared for, Kira Nerys passed Kira Nalas into his father's arms.

"Would you mind putting him in his bed?" she asked softly.

"I think I'd like to just hold him," Odo confessed, "at least for a little while." He stared down dreamily into the peaceful face, his own features a study in wonder. He finally tore his gaze away from the baby to bestow it on his wife, his blue eyes solemn but filled with an unimaginable joy. "I never thought I'd have anyone to love," he said simply, his entire past life reflected in those few words. "And now I have both of you." 

Kira's eyes filled, but she smiled as she observed, "You've been saving it up for a long time - now that you're pouring it out on Nalas and me, I feel positively rich." 

"I still can't believe it sometimes," Odo confessed, once again looking with besotted absorption at his sleeping son's face. "I keep thinking that ... oh, that I'll come to my senses, and I'll be in the closet in the back of my office, and the only good thing will be ..." Odo's words trailed off, and he shot Kira an embarrassed look of apology.

"... that you'll be a changeling again," Kira finished for him. "Odo, you don't have to apologize for missing what you were." 

"I just feel like ... it seems ungrateful, somehow." 

"Ungrateful?" Kira smiled questioningly.

"Here I am ... I have you, I have Nalas ... things that couldn't have happened without my becoming a humanoid. I can't understand why the gratitude doesn't overwhelm all the rest of it." 

"I guess you _are_ human," Kira commented, an affectionate smile twisting the corners of her mouth. To Odo's curious look she added, "It's the nature of 'us humanoids' to hunger for the one thing we can't have." 

"Nerys," Odo asked softly, keeping careful eyes on the baby's face, "what's the one thing you still hunger for?" 

"Me?" Kira leaned back against her pillows, giving the question the careful attention it deserved. "Right now I suppose it's my family ... my father, my mother, my brothers ... all the people I'd like to share my joy with, and I can't." An unabashed tear found its way out of Kira's eye and slipped silently down her cheek. "I was thinking today how much I would love to have known my mother, to be able to talk to her now that I'm a mother, too ... and how sad I am knowing it will never happen. How sorry I am that Nalas doesn't have grandparents to spoil him - other than Dr. Mora, of course." Kira gave a little chuckle, echoed by her husband. Odo had dutifully notified the Bajoran scientist of the baby's arrival, and had already received excited notification of an upcoming visit.

"Ah," Odo said quietly, finally looking up to give Kira a wry smile. Kira gave him a long, loving stare, leaning forward and reaching out to lay her hand against his cheek.

"The rest is taken care of," she said simply. "I have good friends ... work that I enjoy ... Bajor is free. And now I have a beautiful new baby, and a husband I love more than I ever could have imagined. The prophets have blessed me more than I deserve." 

 

* * *

The next day, Odo came close to forgetting such mundanities as lunch as he sent out a multitude of messages to some of his less savory contacts, and examined the data that began trickling across his desk. It seemed that the Flaxians involved in the assassination attempt on Aroya were well-known and notorious for their efficiency ... well over a hundred deaths had been attributed to the two of them, without sufficient evidence for even a single prosecution. Together, the pair should have been unstoppable, or so the statistics might indicate, but Odo wasn't so sure.

_People who work well alone don't always do that well when they're yoked to somebody else,_ Odo thought dryly. _I suspect that the Founders famous efficiency failed them on this one._

It was interesting, however, that the Dominion had ordered the killing of their assassins rather than give them a second chance to succeed. _Did they actually mean for them to succeed? I wonder_...

"Here he is," a soft voice interrupted him, one that made him look up with an astonished smile. Kira stood in the doorway, a well-wrapped bundle that was baby Nalas cuddled securely in her arms. "This is your father's office." 

"Nerys!" Odo got to his feet, and hastened to Kira's side. "Should you be up?" 

"I'm fine!" Kira assured him, laughing. "Nalas wanted to see where you work." 

Odo looked into the tiny face with its tightly closed eyes and generally scrunched-up expression. "I'm afraid he looks disappointed." 

"Nonsense." Kira handed the baby to Odo, who awkwardly gathered the child into a careful grasp. "When you didn't come home, I thought you might need someone to remind you to have lunch." 

"Hmm?" Odo, already engrossed in studying his baby's face, barely registered the words. "What — oh! I'm sorry, I lost track of the time." 

"Can I bring you a sandwich from the Replimat, or do you just want to replicate something here?" 

"A sandwich would be fine." Odo would have made the same response if he had been offered a synthale and a dabo girl, as he was paying only the most minimal attention to Kira's offer. Kira smiled, going on tiptoe to kiss her husband's cheek. 

"I'll be back." 

Odo walked the sleeping baby across the room to the observation port overlooking the holding cells ... all were empty, except for the one where Aroya stood peering up as though waiting to catch glimpse of her keepers, her dark eyes desperate. Sudden curiosity making him forget his earlier resolution, Odo stepped through the door and down the stairs into the holding area, little Nalas balanced carefully in his arms. 

"Is there something you need?" he asked quietly, approaching the cell. Aroya stared at the child in his arms, her expression an unfathomable mixture of wonder and dread.

"Is it yours?" she asked. Her expression was strangely puzzled.

"Mine and Major Kira's." Odo somehow managed to keep any reproach out of his voice, more interested in launching a successful investigation than making any recriminations.

Aroya studied the baby thoughtfully. "It looks new." 

"He is new." Odo smiled a little. "He was born night before last. His name is Kira Nalas." 

"He's so small." Aroya's tone had passed from perplexed to absolutely bewildered. She added tautly, "We never see our children. Not until they're adults." 

Odo thought back to the various things he had heard about Vorta. "I thought your children were bred in test tubes." 

"Is that what they say?" Aroya turned abruptly and went back to the sleeping ledge affixed to the side of her cell, seating herself with her back to the force-shielded entrance. "It's no good, Odo. I'm not going to tell you anything that might be held against me." 

Odo felt a sudden stab of remorse as he stared at Aroya's averted profile. He had felt a brief but powerful attraction to this woman, shared with her the same act — if not the same emotions — that had created the child he held in his arms. He said gently, "Aroya, you've asked for political asylum. I can't recommend that we give it to you unless you tell me why." 

"I'm afraid for my life ... and after what happened with those Flaxians, I'd think you could see that I'm justified." 

"The fact that two usually very successful assassins failed to kill you and were themselves silenced before they could be forced to testify could indicate that the original assassination attempt was just a front by the Dominion. That the Founders really want you alive, only they want you to stay here in the Alpha quadrant." 

"But I'd be doing that if they hadn't asked for my extradition, anyway." 

"Yes, but they might think that this will make us think that you're less of a threat than you are. That you won't be supplying them with any further information." 

"What sort of information am I supposed to find in a prison on Bajor?" Aroya gave Odo a thoughtful glance. "I haven't noticed a wealth of intelligence being disseminated among the minor Cardassian war criminals, the robbers, and the murderers. Most of them seem — quite ignorant of anything important happening in the outside world." 

"Why are you so afraid of the Founders? Are they going to kill you just because you failed in your mission?" 

"Kill me?" Aroya let out a short laugh. "Nothing so easy as that! Who knows, though, maybe I'll be lucky ... a Jem'Hadar, or even another Vorta." 

"I don't understand." Odo shook his head, bewildered. The baby let out a discontented little chirp, and Odo shifted it absent-mindedly in his arms, so that the small head could rest more comfortably in the palm of his hand. 

"I'm withdrawing my request for political asylum," Aroya said abruptly. "After the Flaxian incident, I think I'll just take my chances there." 

Odo heard the thumping of boot heels on the stairs behind him, and turned to see Kira, her eyes wide and wary as she hurried to join him, a decidedly belligerent furrow breaking the smooth curve of her brow. "Odo --?" She looked at him questioningly. 

"I just had a few questions I needed to ask," Odo murmured, handing Nalas back to his mother. Kira cuddled the infant protectively, looking like she would tear Aroya apart with her bare hands should the Dominion operative so much as take a step towards her baby.

Aroya gave Kira a long stare, an odd smile twisting the corners of her mouth. "Your son is — interesting, Major. Imagine ... it looks like he's just a plain humanoid after all." 

Those were the last words Chalan Aroya directed at either Kira or Odo for the remainder of the three days that were to elapse before the Jem'Hadar forces arrived to escort her back to the Gamma Quadrant ... and they were words that were to haunt Odo for a very long time.

_To Be Continued ..._

Copyright 1996 by Carolyn R. Fulton. Paramount Pictures, VIACOM _et al_ owns all rights to STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and the characters and universe depicted within. This is a work of fan fiction, designed solely for the enjoyment of fans of the Star Trek universe, and no infringement of Paramount's copyright or trademarks is intended. The following may be reproduced electronically or in single hard copy for your own enjoyment only, providing that all disclaimer material remains in place.


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